LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


.Q!*L£-! 

Class 


GIFT    OF 

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HE  DID  IT; 


The    Life    of  a    New   England 


Written  in   His   Adopted  State 
California 


ASA   SANBORN   EDGERLY 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAI,.  : 

PRESS    OF    H.  S.    CROCKER    Co. 

1909 


DEDICATED. 


I  dedicate  this  book  to  Mrs.  Violet  Mabel 
Hoggins  Webber,  in  consideration  of  the  great 
service  she  has  rendered  me  in  writing  it. 

THE  AUTHOK. 


186314 


A.  S.  EDGERLY 


£1 


MRS.  A.  S.  EDG^RLY 


INDEX. 

CHAPTER  I.  Page 

My  Boyhood   Days 13 

CHAPTER  II. 

My   School   Days 21 

CHAPTER  III. 

I    Studied   Dentistry 40 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Engaged  in  Teaching  School 43 

CHAPTER  V. 

Got  Married 49 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Teaching   Continued 51 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Went  Into  the  Restaurant  Business  With  My  Brother 

in  Almira,  New  York,  and  Other  Changes 59 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Engaged  in  the  Life  Insurance  Business 62 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Engaged  in  Fanning 66 

CHAPTER  X. 

Canvassing  and  Ice  Cream  and  Real  Estate  Business.  .  .      69 
CHAPTER  XI. 

Built  the  Edgerly  Block 77 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Boom  Broke 82 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Running  Rooming  Houses 86 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Rooming  Houses  Continued 92 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Gave  Up  Business 95 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Built  Four  Homes  on  the  Two  Hundred-Acre  Vineyard 
North  of  Town  for  My  Children 99 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Extracts 103 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

My  Own  Architect Ill 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

My  Habits  of  Life 112 

CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Church   ' 117 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Lessons  to  Poor  Young  Men 118 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

My  Views  of  Spiritual  Life 120 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

There  Is  a  God 123 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Sunday  Trading  125 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Cutting  Wood 127 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

A  Word  to  Young  Men  and  Women  About  to  Marry.  .  .    129 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

My  Wife 131 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Golden  Wedding 133 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Go  to  Oakland 134 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Cataract    135 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Deed  All  My  Property  to  My  Wife  and  Children 137 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

Looking  Forward 139 


HE    DID    IT; 


The    Life    of  a    New    England    Boy 


CHAPTEE   I. 


MY  BOYHOOD  DAYS. 

Away  back  in  New  England  wh^re  the  wild 
fox  digs  his  hole  unscared,  and  the  red  squirrel 
hoards  his  nuts  in  the  hollow  of  a  tree  undisturbed, 
where  the  wild  turkey  builds  its  nest  and  rears  its 
young  unmolested,  and  where  the  country  is  held 
in  its  icy  embrace  for  six  months  of  the  year, 
is  where  the  writer  first  saw  the  light  on  March 
15,  1834.  Born  of  the  persecuted  Puritan  descend- 
ents  of  poor  but  respected  parents,  I  passed  my 
youth  on  a  New  England  farm,  so  sterile,  that  it 
seldom  made  proper  returns  for  hard  work  be- 
stowed. Being  the  sixth  child  of  the  numerous 
family  of  twelve  children  it  became  necessary  for 
me  to  look  elsewhere  for  a  living. 


14  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

It  was  a  custom  in  that  country  for  boys  to  re- 
ceive their  time  from  their  parents  at  the  age  of 
eighteen,  so  that  I,  being  desirous  of  an  education, 
told  my  father  that  if  he  would  pay  my  expenses 
for  six  months'  schooling  at  the  Academy,  I  would 
work  for  him  on  the  farm  for  the  other  six  months 
of  the  year.  This  talk  was  had  on  an  early  Mon- 
day morning  whilst  we  were  mowing  in  the  field 
before  sun-up,  as  it  was  customary  for  us  to 
begin  the  day's  work  during  hay-time  before  the 
sun  rose.  He  said  he  would  talk  it  over  with  my 
mother  and  report  to  me  that  evening.  I  included 
in  my  proposition  that  the  expenses  of  my  sister, 
Martha,  next  younger  than  me,  should  also  be 
paid  at  the  Academy  for  three  months  of  the  year. 
Pie  reported  acceptance  of  my  proposition  that 
evening.  This  was  in  the  month  of  July,  1852, 
and  school  at  the  Academy  was  to  commence  the 
first  of  September  following.  A  few  days  before 
the  first  of  September  my  father  went  to  the  vil- 
lage where  the  Academy  was,  four  miles  away, 
and  made  arrangements  there  with  the  merchant 
of  the  little  town  for  our  board.  The  condition  of 
the  trade  with  the  merchant  was  that  we  were  to 
board  with  him  and  his  family  for  five  days  of 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  15 

the  week  for  one  shilling  a  day  each.  On  Monday 
morning  of  the  first  day  of  September  he  took  us 
to  our  boarding  place.  On  Friday  evening  of  the 
same  week  he  came  for  us  and  took  us  home,  and 
thus  we  paid  for  five  days  board  per  week,  at  one 
shilling  per  day — a  shilling  is  sixteen  and  two- 
thirds  cents. 

We  attended  the  Academy  during  the  eleven 
weeks  of  the  term.  The  school  was  taught  that 
term  by  Rev.  Eeed,  pastor  of  the  Free  Baptist 
Church  of  the  village. 

My  first  interest  was  aroused  in  education  by 
a  young  lady  who  was  my  first  sweetheart,  Chris- 
tiana Jacobs,  who  lived  one-fourth  mile  from  my 
home,  whom  I  visited  with  my  sister,  Martha,  one 
Sunday  evening,  when  she  made  the  statement, 
that  she  was  going  to  school  at  the  Academy  in  the 
fall  and  insisted  on  Martha's  and  my  going,  too. 
I  thought  the  matter  over  that  night  and  made  the 
proposition  to  my  father,  and  it  was  accepted,  that 
we  should  go  to  the  Academy  in  the  fall.  Although 
I  enjoyed  her  society  during  the  school  term,  a 
neighbor  boy  succeeded  in  marrying  her  later  on. 

After  years  had  passed  on  her  only  son  and 
daughter  were  graduated  at  New  Hampton  In- 


16  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

stitution,  where  I  had  graduated  years  before,  and 
the  son  came  to  me  in  California  where  I  was  then 
living  and  I  took  him  in  my  arms,  as  it  were,  and 
helped  him  to  get  a  school  where  he  taught  for 
two  years  and  earned  money  enough  to  pay  his 
expenses  in  college.  After  graduating  from  col- 
lege, he  came  back  to  California  and  married  a 
girl  whose  acquaintance  he  had  formed  while 
teaching  school  there,  and  took  her  back  to  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  where  he  became  a  professor  in  a  col- 
lege there. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  last  term  of  school,  of 
the  agreement  with  my  father  I  went  to  Guilford 
Academy,  twelve  miles  away  from  my  home.  Pro- 
fessor Benjamin  Stanton  was  the  principal.  After 
passing  through  the  school  term,  I  engaged  to 
teach  a  school  near  that  town  for  ten  dollars  a 
month  and  my  board,  and  I  boarded  all  over  the 
neighborhood. 

After  teaching  two  months  where  I  had  a  suc- 
cessful school,  I  went  home,  and  from  there  I  went 
to  Boston,  Mass.,  to  find  employment.  After  walk- 
ing the  streets  of  Boston  for  about  three  weeks, 
I  found  a  job  in  a  grocery  store  for  which  I  agreed 
to  work  for  one  year  for  seventy-five  dollars  and 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  \1 

board.  I  worked  three  months  and  my  health 
failed  me.  I  left  that  place  and  went  to  my  uncle, 
Daniel  Edgerly,  who  lived  in  the  city  of  Boston. 
After  staying  there  about  one  month  I  had  suf- 
ficiently recruited  my  health  to  go  to  work  again. 

I  started  to  find  another  job ;  I  found  a  job 
where  I  could  earn  ten  dollars  a  month  and  board 
in  a  baker  shop.  After  working  there  three 
months  my  health  failed  me  again  and  I  left  there 
and  went  to  my  father's  home  in  Meredith,  New 
Hampshire. 

Although  my  father  had  a  numerous  family  of 
twelve  children,  ten  of  whom  were  at  home  at  one 
time,  the  two  oldest  were  away  at  work  in  the 
cotton  factory,  where  they  earned  some  money,  the 
bulk  of  which,  after  paying  their  expenses,  they 
brought  home  to  my  father  and  gave  it  to  him  as 
a  loan.  We  had  a  school  for  three  months  in  the 
winter  and  three  months  in  the  summer;  in  the 
winter  the  large  and  small  went  to  school,  in  the 
summer  only  the  smaller  children  attended  the 
school  because  the  older  children  had  to  stay  at 
home  and  help  make  a  crop,  for  all  of  the  family 
old  enough  to  earn  anything  had  to  do  his  share 
of  the  work  on  the  farm,  because  the  farm  was  so 


18  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

sterile  that  we  had  to  make  every  thing  count  to 
keep  us  through  the  hard  winter.  The  land  was 
so  poor  that  the  country  there  was  given  the  name 
of  "Hard  Scrabble,"  for  we  had  to  scrabble 
through  the  summer  to  get  enough  to  keep  us 
through  the  winter.  During  the  winter  term  of 
school  father  kept  an  old  mare  and  sleigh  for  us 
to  go  to  school  with,  and  there  were  eight  of  us 
children  to  go,  and  we  would  all  pile  together  in 
the  sleigh  and  my  oldest  sister,  Hannah,  would 
take  the  lines  and  whip  and  drive  to  the  school- 
house  a  mile  away.  After  unloading  the  children 
she  turned  the  mare's  head  toward  home,  tied  the 
lines  to  the  dashboard,  then  taking  the  whip  give 
the  old  mare  a  few  cuts  and  she  would  start  off 
and  never  stop  until  she  arrived  home.  In  the 
evening  father  would  come  with  the  same  old  mare 
and  take  us  home.  In  the  summer  time  we  would 
attend  the  school  on  foot,  carrying  our  lunch  pail. 
Usually  the  lunch  pail  had  a  respectable  dinner  for 
us  all,  but  one  day  mother  was  so  put  to  it  that 
she  did  not  have  a  sufficiently  respectable  dinner 
for  us,  so  she  put  into  a  large  pail  milk  and  into 
another  pail  bread,  and  when  the  noon  hour  came 
we  were  ashamed  to  eat  our  bread  and  milk  before 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  19 

the  other  scholars,  so  Hannah,  who  was  the  oldest 
and  manager  of  the  group,,  took  us  all  off  to  the 
woods ;  there  we  sat  down  and  ate  our  bread  and 
milk  picnic  fashion,  each  having  his  own  tin  cup 
and  spoon.  The  numerous  family  of  my  father 
made  clothing  and  provisions  for  the  family  a 
serious  problem,  but  we  have  always  said  that  we 
never  went  to  bed  hungry  and  we  all  had  a  special 
suit  of  clothes  for  Sunday,  because  father  kept 
sheep  and  had  the  wool  carded  and  the  girls  spun 
the  wool  into  thread  and  my  mother  wove  it  into 
cloth  and  dyed  it,  and  father  had  a  tailoress  come 
there  once  a  year  and  made  the  goods  into  cloth- 
ing for  the  boys,  and  a  dressmaker  came  to  make 
the  goods  into  dresses  for  the  girls,  and  father 
being  a  cobbler,  had  a  neighbor  cobbler  to  come 
there  and  make  the  leather  obtained  from  the 
slaughtering  of  the  animals  for  the  meat  that  was 
salted  down  to  supply  the  family,  into  boots  and 
shoes  for  the  family.  Thus  my  father  supported 
his  family  from  the  proceeds  of  the  old  rocky  farm. 
The  1)1  eak  weather  with  its  snow  and  ice  made  it 
necessary  for  him  to  spend  a  larger  portion  of 
the  winter  in  breaking  the  roads.  The  way  they 
did  it  was  that  after  every  storm  the  neighbors 


20  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

would  club  together  with  their  oxen  and  sleds  and 
drive  ihrough  the  roads  in  the  district  set  apart 
by  the  officials  to  keep  clear,  so  that  about  one-half 
of  the  year's  time  was  used  in  keeping  the  roads 
clear.  The  balance  of  the  time,  after  breaking  the 
roads,  was  consumed  in  cutting  and  hauling  the 
wood  to  supply  the  family.  A  large  pile  of  wood 
consisting  of  several  cords  was  piled  up  in  the 
door  yard  of  the  house.  In  the  spring  of  the  year 
when  the  snow  was  melting  and  the  roads  im- 
passable, it  was  father's  business  and  the  boys  to 
cut  and  prepare  the  wood  for  the  stove  and  haul 
it  into  the  shed  where  it  was  stored  for  summer 
use. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  21 


CHAPTEK   II. 


MY  SCHOOL  DAYS. 

Prof.  Benjamin  Stanton,  who  was  the  professor 
at  the  Academy  of  the  school  in  Guilf ord  Academy 
where  I  last  went,  was  elected  by  the  Institute 
Board  of  New  Hampton  as  principal  of  the  New 
Hampton  School.  It  also  had  a  theological  de- 
partment. In  this  school  they  educated  and  grad- 
uated young  men  to  enter  college,  and  there  is  a 
female  department  where  they  educate  and  grad- 
uate young  ladies.  When  I  was  at  the  age  of 
nineteen,  I  told  my  father  that  I  was  not  physically 
strong  to  be  a  working  man  and  that  I  must  go  to 
school  and  fit  myself  for  lighter  work  than  a  day 
laborer.  "But  how  can  you  do  it!"  he  said.  "I 
don't  know  how  I  wilt  do  it,"  I  says,  "but  where 
there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way."  And  I  went  to 
New  Hampton  to  school.  The  first  thing  I  did 
was  to  engage  a  room  where  I  could  cook,  eat  and 
study.  I  boarded  myself  for  three  years,  kept 


PROF.  BENJAMIN   STANTON 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  23 

bachelors  hall,  had  nothing  to  eat  excepting  what 
I  cooked  myself  and  what  mother  would  send  me 
in  the  shape  of  pies  and  cakes.  I  bought  my  books 
with  the  little  money  I  had  saved  from  my  Boston 
trip,  and  entered  the  Sophomore  class  of  the  New 
Hampton  Institute.  I  joined  the  Social  Frater- 
nity, a  prominent  literary  society,  and  remain  a 
member  to  this  day.  This  was  the  fall  term  of 
the  Sophomore  year. 

Col.  Lewis,  a  native  of  Mississippi,  came  to  New 
Hampton  to  recover  his  health  long  before  the 
forties  and  settled  there.  He  soon  became  inter- 
ested in  the  New  Hampton  Institute.  Being  a 
man  of  great  wealth,  he  was  a  power  there.  His 
wealth  consisted  in  owning  a  large  number  of 
negro  slaves  which  he  owned  with  his  brother  in 
Mississippi.  But  his  brother  remained  at  home 
and  run  the  plantation  while  he  lived  in  New 
Hampton  with  his  family  and  spent  his  money. 
Fronting  on  Main  Street  were  fifty  acres  of  rich 
land,  running  back  quite  a  distance.  He  cultivated 
this  land  like  a  garden.  He  built  near  the  street 
a  green-house  in  which  he  cultivated  grapes  and 
flowers.  He  told  me  one  day,  while  I  was  visiting 
his  conservatory,  that  some  people  thought  him 


COL.  RUFUS  G.  LEWIS 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  25 

foolish  to  spend  so  much  money  upon  fruits  and 
flowers,  "but,"  says  he,  "I  derive  more  revenue 
from  grapes  and  flowers  than  any  farmer  in  the 
county  does  from  his  farm,  notwithstanding  that  I 
have  to  keep  it  heated  by  day  and  night  for  one- 
half  of  the  year."  He  had  a  family  of  children, 
three  sons  and  one  daughter,  on  which  he  doted,  as 
Southern  people  of  wealth  will  do.  Being  wealthy, 
he  could  send  his  children  to  school.  They 
did  not  have  to  do  a  lick  of  work,  while  I,  being 
poor,  had  to  put  in  every  moment  of  my  leisure 
time  in  working  to  get  money  to  help  pay  my  ex- 
penses. While  seeing  this,  I  began  to  grieve  that 
God  had  given  them  so  much  and  had  given  me 
nothing,  so  one  day  I  went  to  Col.  Lewis,  whom  I 
found  in  his  conservatory,  and  asked  him  for  a 
loan  or  a  gift,  I  do  not  remember  which.  He 
turned  to  me  and  said,  "Because  I'm  able  to  send 
my  children  to  school  and  your  father  is  not  able 
to  send  you,  I  must  help  you,  must  I  not  ? "  "  No, ' ' 
said  he,  "go  on  as  you  are  now  going  and 
I  venture  to  say  that  you  will  come  out  better  in 
the  end  than  my  boys  will."  I  went  away  much 
grieved  because  he  had  turned  me  down,  but  I 
have  watched  his  sons,  and  his  prophecy  has  been 


26  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

literally  fulfilled,  for  his  sons  who  have  been  raised 
in  ease  and  plenty  and  were  never  required  to  work 
or  do  anything  for  themselves,  have  not  made  their 
mark  in  life,  whilst  I  have  succeeded  so  well  in 
life  that  my  property  exceeds  theirs  by  many 
thousands.  Now  the  tables  are  turned;  I  am  rich 
while  they  are  poor.  And  I  owe  it  all  to  the  fact 
that  I  had  to  learn  to  work  in  my  boyhood.  Col. 
Lewis  had  often  been  spoken  against  by  Abolition- 
ists in  New  Hamplon,  of  whom  there  was  a  goodly 
number  in  the  neighborhood,  because  he  owned 
slaves.  It  was  frequently  argued  against  receiv- 
ing contributions  from  his  wealth,  because  it  was 
earned  largely  by  slave-labor,  but  his  great  popu- 
larity as  a  man  overcame  all  such  scruples. 

I  took  a  school  in  Bristol,  New  Hampshire, 
across  the  Pemeguosic  Eiver,  opposite  New  Hamp 
ton,  where  I  was  very  successful.  The  day  before 
the  school  closed  there  came  a  man  from  Center 
Harbor,  N.  H.,  who  wanted  a  teacher.  I  intended 
to  go  from  this  school  back  to  New  Hampton  and 
resume  my  studies,  but  he  offered  me  a  good  price 
if  I  would  go  and  teach  his  school,  for  it  was  dif- 
ficult to  find  teachers  at  that  season  of  the  year. 
After  teaching  that  school  Mr.  Cany,  a  prominent 


28  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

citizen,  had  a  son  and  daughter  who  were  patrons 
of  my  school,  and  he  suggested  to  me  that  I  go  to 
Meredith  Village,  three  miles  distant,  and  open 
up  a  private  school  where  he  sent  his  son  and 
daughter.  The  teaching  of  these  schools  carried 
me  through  the  spring  term,  but  I  had  kept  up 
with  my  classes  by  studying  extra  times,  and  went 
back  to  my  school  for  the  summer  term.  I  worked 
at  haying  and  canvassing  for  books  to  raise  money 
to  help  me  with  my  expenses.  At  the  close  of  this 
term  I  went  to  Cape  Code  to  teach  school.  A 
member  of  our  class  went  there  for  the  purpose 
of  engaging  schools  for  the  students.  So  many 
schools  did  he  engage  that  when  they  went  down 
there  they  were  called  the  drove.  "He  is  one  of 
the  drove,"  they  would  say. 

He  located  me  at  the  little  town  called  West 
Sandwich,  Barnstable  County,  Mass.  I  had  in 
my  school  seven  young  ladies  of  about  my  age.  I 
remember  distinctly  the  first  morning  I  began 
school.  These  young  ladies  came  trooping  in  and 
took  their  seats ;  their  size  and  beauty  very  much 
abashed  me,  but  I,  following  the  custom  of  the 
school  from  which  I  came,  opened  the  school  with 
prayer.  The  school  numbered  about  forty  stu- 


30  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

dents,  very  few  of  them  of  much  size.  After 
prayers  I  enrolled  the  names  of  the  scholars. 
There  was  one  young  lady  in  the  group  who  very 
much  interested  me,  who  afterwards  became  my 
wife.  I  boarded  around  the  neighborhood  to  help 
out  the  length  of  the  school  which  was  about  three 
months;  my  wages  was  thirty  dollars  per  month 
and  board.  The  first  day  at  noon  when  I  went  to 
my  lunch,  I  thought  to  myself  that  I  had  earned 
seventy-five  cents  that  forenoon,  the  most  money 
in  the  shortest  time  that  I  ever  earned.  The 
school  district  had  a  social  turn,  and  during  the 
winter  there  were  several  social  parties  where  I 
was  invited  and  accepted.  To  one  of  these  parties 
I  took  two  young  ladies  in  the  old-fashioned  shay. 
After  the  party  had  broken  up,  the  horse  being  a 
very  spirited  one,  we  drove  home  very  rapidly, 
four  miles.  I  took  each  girl  to  her  home  and  then 
took  the  horse  to  the  stable  and  went  to  my  board- 
ing-house and  immediately  retired  before  the  other 
young  people  had  gotten  home.  I  left  my  plug 
hat  standing  on  the  ante  table  in  the  hall.  After 
I  had  gone  to  sleep  the  other  members  of  the 
household  came  home  and  took  seats  in  the  parlor 
waiting  for  me  to  come.  After  they  had  sat  about 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  31 

an  hour  they  began  to  wonder  where  I  was,  think- 
ing I  was  a  long  time  getting  home,  but  one  of 
them  happened  to  go  in  the  hall  and  saw  my  hat 
on  the  table ;  she  reported  to  the  other  girls  in  the 
parlor  that  I  must  be  at  home  as  my  hat  was  there. 
Then  they  all  retired.  This  was  a  huge  joke  on 
them,  and  the  next  morning  at  the  breakfast  table 
some  one  asked  where  I  was  the  night  before, 
which  sat  up  a  big  laugh  because  I  had  so  fooled 
them,  and  we  had  a  big  time  over  it.  I  always 
wore  a  high  silk  hat  those  days,  for  I  thought  a  cap 
was  not  dignified  enough  for  a  school  teacher.  I 
was  so  popular  in  that  family  that  we  used  to 
gather  in  the  parlor  and  have  social  chats  with 
the  school  girls  that  would  come  over.  I  being  a 
single  school  teacher,  became  quite  a  favorite  with 
the  girls.  And  thus  passed  the  winter  in  the 
school  and  social  circle.  At  the  close  of  the  school 
we  gave  an  exhibition;  we  needed  lamps  to  light 
the  school-house.  Gustavus  Swift,  who  founded 
the  great  Swift  Packing  Company  of  Chicago, 
was  a  boy  at  that  time,  called  by  his  chums  *  *  Stut- 
tering Dick, ' '  because  he  stuttered ;  he  was  janitor 
of  the  church.  I  invited  him  to  bring  the  lamps 
of  the  church  and  light  up  my  school-house  that 


32  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

night.  The  next  morning  he  took  the  lamps  to 
the  church.  I  asked  him  what  I  should  give  him 
for  his  trouble;  he  told  me  I  might  give  him 
t-t-t-wenty  f-f-f-ve  c-c-c-nts  i-i-i-f  I  w-w-was  a 
m-in-mine  t-t-to.  I  paid  him  the  twenty-five 
cents.  This  Gustavus  Swift  started  his  career 
in  life  by  butchering  sheep  for  one  cent  a  head 
for  his  brother,  who  was  in  the  meat  business.  He 
also  went  to  the  Brighton  Market,  near  Boston, 
where  they  would  buy  droves  of  hogs,  drive  them 
down  on  Cape  Cod  and  peddle  them  out  to  the 
people  who  each  wanted  a  pig  or  two.  This  young 
man  would  take  the  money  his  brother  gave  him 
for  his  wages  and  buy  a  few  pigs  to  drive  on  down 
the  Cape  with  his  brother  and  sell  them  out.  After 
awhile  he  had  accumulated  enough  to  buy  a  drove 
for  himself.  He  made  some  money  then  and  went 
into  the  butcher  business  down  on  the  Cape  in  the 
town  of  Barnstable.  He  started  a  market  and 
sent  out  four  wagons  to  sell  his  meat  to  the  coun- 
try people.  There  were  in  the  town  four  men  in 
the  same  business  who  nudged  each  other  and  said 
they  were  sorry  for  the  boy,  for  he  would  lose 
what  he  had  in  a  few  weeks,  for  he  gave  over- 
weight. In  less  than  one  year  he  was  selling  beef 


1 

(UNIVERSITY^ 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  33 

to  these  same  men.  He  would  go  to  Brighton  and 
buy  carloads  of  cattle,  ship  them  down  on  the 
Cape,  slaughter  them  and  sell  the  meat  to  these 
four  men.  To  get  this  money  to  buy  these  cattle 
he  went  to  his  uncle  Paul  Crowell,  my  wife's 
father,  to  borrow  the  money.  He  got  six  hundred 
dollars  for  thirty  days  and  he  paid  it  back  the  day 
before  it  was  due,  and  he  said  that  was  the  key  to 
his  success  in  life  to  pay  borrowed  money  the  day 
before  it  was  due.  When  he  needed  more  money 
than  Paul  Crowell  could  furnish  him,  he  went  to 
the  Barnstable  Bank  and  asked  the  president  if  he 
would  loan  him  six  thousand  dollars.  The  old  man 
drummed  on  the  counter  with  his  pencil  and 
opened  wide  his  eyes  and  looked  at  the  young  man 
and  said,  "  Young  man,  what  are  you  going  to  do 
with  six  thousand  dollars  ?"  The  young  man  re- 
plied, "I  am  going  to  Albany,  New  York,  and  buy 
six  carloads  of  cattle. "  "What  security  can  you 
give, ' '  the  old  man  asked.  ' '  Nothing  but  my  note, ' ' 
he  said.  The  old  banker  was  thunderstruck  and 
thought  for  a  moment.  He  knew  the  young  man 
was  a  thrifty  boy.  He  had  done  business  with 
him  for  a  couple  of  years  and  knew  he  was  a 
thrifty  young  man  and  faithful  in  paying  his  loans. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  35 

After  a  moment's  thought  he  said,  "You  can  have 
it,"  and  made  out  a  note  for  six  thousand  dollars 
which  the  young  man  signed.  The  day  before  the 
note  became  due  the  young  man  appeared  at  the 
bank  window  and  paid  the  six  thousand  dollars 
and  took  up  his  note.  He  then  looked  up  at  the 
old  banker  and  said,  * i  Can  I  have  that  six  thousand 
dollars  again?"  "Yes,"  the  banker  said,  "you 
can  have  it, ' '  and  it  was  paid  again  the  day  before 
it  was  due.  This  circumstances  of  prompt  payment 
gave  the  young  man  credit  for  all  the  money  the 
banks  could  loan.  He  then  moved  to  Chicago 
where  he  commenced  the  great  establishment,  The 
Swift  Packing  Company.  He  borrowed  money  by 
the  millions,  but  he  always  paid  it  the  day  before 
it  was  due,  and  this  prompt  payment  was  the  key- 
note of  his  success.  He  told  me  this  on  one  occa- 
sion when  I  was  visiting  him.  "I  have  but  one 
advice  to  give  to  any  young  man  when  he  borrows 
money,  always  pay  it  back  the  day  before  it  be- 
comes due,  and  this  will  establish  his  confidence 
with  the  banks,  so  that  he  can  borrow  all  the 
money  he  wants."  He  said,  "If  I  had  failed  to 
pay  the  loan  when  it  fell  due,  I  would  have  lost 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  37 

their  confidence  and  been  crippled  for  life.     By 
prompt  payment  I  established  confidence. " 

School  on  Cape  Cod  having  closed,  I  went  back 
to  the  New  Hampton  school  for  the  spring  term. 
I  met  numerous  school  mates  and  we  passed 
through  the  summer  term,  keeping  up  successfully 
with  my  class.  While  many  of  the  boys  were  en- 
gaged in  playing  ball  on  the  school  ground  I  was 
engaged  in  hoeing  corn  for  a  neighbor  at  ten  cents 
an  hour  during  corn  hoeing  time.  Other  times  I 
would  be  engaged  in  sawing  wood  for  the  neigh- 
bors around,  and  thus  passed  my  time  in  work 
while  other  boys  more  favorably  provided  for 
were  playing  ball.  After  the  term  of  school  closed 
I  went  to  work  for  the  farmers,  making  hay  during 
my  vacation,  where  I  earned  considerable  'money 
to  help  pay  my  school  expenses.  The  fall  term 
passed  much  the  same  as  the  previous  term,  at  the 
close  of  which  I  returned  to  Cape  Cod  to  teach  the 
same  school  where  I  had  taught  the  previous 
winter.  I  received  the  same  wages,  but  did  not 
board  all  around  over  the  neighborhood.  I  had 
virtually  the  same  group  of  young  ladies  as 
pupils,  and  the  one  I  mentioned  interested 
me  so  much  is  where  I  boarded  altogether.  The 


38  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

close  proximity  to  each  other  in  the  family 
caused  us  to  become  well  acquainted,  and  finally 
ripened  into  courtship,  so  that  by  the  time  the 
term  closed  we  had  entered  into  arrangements  to 
be  mates  for  life,  which  was  consumated  three 
years  afterwards,  after  I  had  left  college  and 
gone  South  to  teach.  The  school  having  closed  I 
went  back  to  New  Hampton  to  resume  my  studies 
there  with  much  the  same  conditions  as  in  pre- 
vious years.  When  the  next  fall  term  closed  I 
went  back  to  Cape  Cod  and  took  another  school  at 
Centerville,  about  fifteen  miles  further  down  on 
the  Cape.  I  had  a  successful  school  and  formed  the 
acquaintance  of  a  teacher  in  an  adjoining  district 
to  whom  I  became  somewhat  attached,  because  she 
was  such  a  help  to  me.  After  the  school  term 
closed  I  went  to  Michigan  to  Hillsdale  College,  a 
Free  Baptist  school.  I  there  met  as  president  of 
the  college  Chancelor  E.  B.  Fair-field,  a  noted 
educator.  I  entered  the  Sophomore  class  where  I 
remained  one  term.  From  President  Fairfield  I 
learned  they  were  in  need  of  a  teacher  of  drawing. 
The  lady  to  whom  I  had  become  attached  at  Cen- 
terville was  a  teacher  of  drawing.  I  wrote  to  her, 
saying  there  was  an  opening  there  for  her  to  teach 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  39 

drawing.  She  communicated  with  President  Fair- 
field,  which  resulted  in  her  engagement  for  the 
next  term,  which  she  successfully  filled.  At  the 
close  of  the  Sophomore  year,  because  some  of  the 
New  Hampton  students  had  gone  to  the  Ann  Arbor 
College,  Michigan,  I  went  there  to  visit  them,  and 
I  was  so  much  taken  with  the  college  that  I  left  my 
Hillsdale  College  and  passed  the  examination  to 
enter  Ann  Arbor. 


40  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER    III. 


I  STUDIED  DENTISTRY. 

During  the  vacation  I  went  south  to  Ohio  for  the 
purpose  of  finding  something  to  do  to  earn  money. 
I  took  an  agency  to  canvass  for  books,  but  met 
with  very  poor  success  as  a  canvasser.  I  met  a 
man  who  had  a  patent-right  for  a  fanning  mill  for 
cleaning  grain.  I  bought  the  right  for  Cuaga 
County,  Ohio.  I  started  out  to  canvass  for  the 
sale  of  the  patent-right.  I  worked  about  a  month 
and  made  but  one  sale  for  which  I  received  a  gold 
watch  estimated  at  fifty  dollars.  I  became  dis- 
gusted with  the  patent-right  business  and  went 
into  a  dentist  office  in  Central  Ohio,  to  see  if  they 
wanted  a  dental  student.  The  man  told  me  that 
he  did  not  want  any  students,  but  that  he  knew  of 
a  man  who  lived  at  Eavena,  Ohio,  by  the  name  of 
Dr.  Spellman,  who  wanted  a  student.  I  went  there 
and  saw  Dr.  Spellman  and  made  the  arrangement 
with  him  to  study  dentistry  for  a  year.  As  I  had 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  41 

no  means  to  pay  him  a  tuition  except  the  watch,  I 
told  him  I  would  give  him  my  watch  for  the 
tuition.  He  said  I  could  carry  the  watch  until  the 
end  of  the  year,  and  then  he  would  take  it.  He 
did  so.  I  had  no  means  of  living  while  engaged 
as  a  dentist  student,  so  I  went  to  a  professor  of  a 
private  school  at  Revana,  by  the  name  of  Hague- 
man,  and  engaged  to  teach  two  hours  a  day  for  my 
board  and  room.  I  taught  three  months  and  then 
I  had  an  opportunity  to  go  to  Shalersville,  a  town 
four  miles  away,  where  I  could  get  a  private 
school.  I  went  there  and  had  a  successful  school. 
During  the  term  of  school  I  met  a  lady  by  the  name 
of  Mason,  who  lived  with  her  father  in  the  village, 
and  fell  in  love  with  her.  She  was  a  widow  and 
fourteen  years  older  than  myself.  I  finished  my 
school  and  then  went  back  to  Eavena  to  the  dentist 
office  where  she  frequently  visited  me.  I  became 
disgusted  with  the  dentist  business.  The  widow, 
as  a  present  to  help  me  on  my  way,  gave  me  ten 
dollars,  and  that  was  the  last  I  ever  saw  of  her, 
but  afterwards  learned  she  got  married.  At  the 
time  I  knew  her  she  was  the  mother  of  seven  chil- 
dren, six  of  whom  were  dead.  After  becoming 


42  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

disgusted  with  the  idea  of  being  a  doctor  of  den- 
tistry, I  decided  that  teaching  was  my  forte,  so 
after  giving  Dr.  Spellman  the  watch,  I  left  Eavena 
for  the  South. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  43 


CHAPTEB    IV. 


ENGAGED  IN  TEACHING  SCHOOL. 

Then  I  went  to  Bowling  Green,  Ky.  While  on 
the  boat  down  the  Ohio  River  I  met  an  elderly 
gentleman  and  his  family,  who  lived  in  Kentucky. 
He  took  me  to  his  wife  and  introduced  me  and 
told  her  I  was  a  Yankee  school  teacher  seeking  a 
school  down  South.  She  said,  "We  will  have  him 
go  along  with  us."  I  also  met  a  young  man  and 
his  mother  on  the  boat  who  were  broke.  He  asked 
me  for  the  loan  of  some  money.  I  told  him  I  had 
but  little  money.  He  said  that  he  and  his  mother 
were  going  to  a  little  town  further  down  on  the 
river,  and  when  they  got  there  they  would  have 
plenty  of  money.  I  let  him  have  ten  dollars  and 
he  told  me  that  he  would  meet  me  at  a  certain 
point  down  the  river  and  pay  me  the  money.  I 
stopped  off  from  the  steamer  at  a  place  called 
Wellsville,  Ohio,  for  the  purpose  of  looking  for  a 
school  there..  I  found  no  school;  the  next  day  I 


44  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

took  the  boat  again,  and  went  down  the  river  to 
the  point  where  this  young  man  I  had  loaned  the 
money  to  was  to  meet  me.  When  I  arrived  there 
I  learned  that  he  lived  in  another  little  town,  four 
miles  from  the  river.  Then  I  had  to  walk  four 
miles  to  see  him;  I  found  him.  He  paid  me  back 
the  ten  dollars,  and  I  walked  back  to  the  river 
four  miles,  and  thus  I  lost  a  day,  and  walked  eight 
miles,  and  this  was  all  the  pay  I  got  for  loaning 
him  ten  dollars.  I  took  the  steamer  and  went  on 
down  to  Cincinnati;  I  crossed  over  to  Covington, 
Ky.,  and  took  the  cars  for  Bowling  Green,  Ky.  I 
stopped  there  a  day  or  two  and  then  started  out 
into  the  country  to  hunt  for  a  school.  I  went  to 
this  man's  house  whom  I  had  met  on  the  boat. 
They  were  glad  to  see  me  and  told  me  that  their 
house  should  be  my  home  as  long  as  I  should-  stay. 
He  loaned  me  a  horse  and  I  rode  ten  miles  to  the 
town  of  Middleton,  where  I  found  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Patterson  who  wanted  an  assistant  in  a 
private  school.  I  engaged  with  him  to  teach  the 
Latin  and  Greek  classes  for  $30  a  month  and 
board.  While  teaching  there  I  became  very  popu- 
lar, but  the  salary  was  so  small  that  I  was  not  sat- 
isfied. After  a  few  months  teaching  there  I  met 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  45 

a  young  man  by  the  name  of  Sanborn  who  had 
just  come  from  Columbus,  Ga.,  and  was  a  teacher. 
He  was  a  Northern  man,  had  gone  down  South 
for  the  purpose  of  teaching.  He  became  dissatis- 
fied because  of  the  heat  and  came  up  to  Kentucky 
where  I  was.  He  reported  that  there  were  schools 
down  there  where  I  could  get  more  wages.  I  made 
arrangements  with  him  to  take  my  place  in  Mr. 
Patterson's  school  to  teach  the  languages,  and  I 
left  for  the  South.  While  in  this  school  I  had  be- 
come very  popular,  by  taking  an  interest  in  the 
Sabbath  school,  because  I  exhibited  my  ability  as 
a  teacher.  I  was  invited  by  the  pastor  of  the 
church  there  to  preach  one  Sunday,  which  I 
politely  declined  to  do.  When  they  found  I  was 
to  leave  they  made  me  a  present  of  a  very  nice 
book  called  "Work  on  Geology,"  which  I  have 
among  my  precious  relics  to  this  day.  I  took  the 
boat  and  went  down  the  Ohio  Eiver  to  Louisville, 
Ky.  I  went  up  the  Columbia  Eiver  to  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  and  changed  cars  for  Chattanooga,  Tenn. 
Thence  I  went  on  to  Atlanta,  Ga.,  and  then  to 
Columbus,  Ga.  As  I  arrived  in  Columbus,  Ga., 
the  city  was  swarming  with  people.  I  asked  the 
occasion  of  so  many  people  in  town.  They  told  me 


46  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

that  two  men  were  to  be  hung.  I  went  to  the  scene 
of  the  gallows  and  there  saw  two  men  hung.  I 
then  went  back  to  the  hotel  and  left  my  trunk  with 
instructions  to  forward  it  when  they  received 
notice,  and  started  out  for  Cuthbert,  Ga.,  about 
fifty  miles  away,  seeking  a  school,  as  I  had  not 
money  to  pay  my  fare.  I  walked  part  of  the  way 
and  rode  whenever  I  could  get  a  chance  on  wagons. 
I  arrived  at  Cuthbert  two  days  afterwards,  but 
had  not  found  any  school.  I  went  to  the  hotel  and 
got  dinner.  I  paid  the  landlord  fifty  cents  for  my 
dinner.  I  then  asked  him  if  he  could  tell  me  where 
I  could  find  a  school.  After  thinking  a  moment  he 
said  there  was  a  place  seven  miles  out  where  they 
wanted  a  school  teacher.  I  started  out  and  ar- 
rived there  at  about  six  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
The  next  morning  he  charged  me  seventy-five  cents 
for  my  supper  and  lodging  and  breakfast.  I  paid 
him  and  had  left  fifty  cents  more.  The  only  money 
I  had  in  the  world.  I  was  three  thousand  miles 
away  from  home.  That  evening  I  told  him  my 
excuse  for  being  there.  I  said  I  wanted  a  school. 
He  said  they  had  just  employed  a  teacher,  but  that 
eight  miles  away  they  wanted  a  teacher.  He  told 
me  to  go  to  Maj.  Goneka.  When  I  arrived  at  Maj. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  47 

Goneka's  house  I  found  it  an  old  plantation  log 
house.  He  was  sitting  on  the  piazza.  As  I  walked 
up  to  the  door  he  arose  and  came  forward  and 
took  me  in  his  arms,  as  it  were,  and  with  an  out- 
stretched hand,  he  said,  *  *  You  are  a  Yankee,  and  a 
school  teacher."  I  said,  "Yes  I'm  a  Yankee  and  a 
school  teacher."  He  replied,  "You  are  just  the 
man  I  want;  come  in  and  sit  down."  We  talked 
the  matter  over  and  he  said,  * t  We  will  have  dinner 
and  go  out  and  see  if  we  can  make  up  a  school," 
as  there  were  no  other  kind  of  school  south  of 
the  Mason  and  Dixy  lines,  except  private  schools. 
After  dinner  he  put  me  on  a  horse  (I  was  not 
accustomed  to  riding  horse-back),  and  we  went 
out  and  made  up  a  school  of  twenty-six  scholars, 
but  he  had  no  school-house  suitable,  but  there  was 
a  house  one  mile  away  at  the  cross-roads  which 
was  vacant,  and  it  had  been  a  rendezvous  for 
goats,  which  we  could  get.  They  sent  their  negroes 
and  cleaned  up  the  house.  But  we  needed  benches 
and  desks.  They  told  me  they  would  send  me 
lumber  and  negro  carpenters  and  I  could  superin- 
tend the  making  of  desks.  They  did  it,  and  I  made 
the  desks,  and  on  the  fifth  of  January,  1859,  fol- 
lowing, I  appointed  a  day  for  opening  the  school. 


48  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

Early  that  January  morning  I  opened  school.  As 
I  came  up  to  the  school-house  I  saw  awaiting  my 
arrival  on  the  outside  of  the  school-house  door 
several  of  my  patrons  of  the  school  and  sixteen 
scholars,  eight  of  whom  could  count  a  hundred 
and  eight  could  not.  I  rang  the  first  school  bell 
ever  rung  in  that  neighborhood,  and  called  the 
school  to  order.  I  commenced  the  usual  operation 
of  taking  the  names  of  the  scholars,  assigned  the 
lessons  of  those  who  were  big  enough  to  study,  and 
commenced  teaching.  As  usual  I  soon  became 
very  popular.  I  had  won  the  confidence  of  the 
people.  I  taught  school  six  months  and  gave  an 
exhibition  at  its  close.  I  then  had  forty-nine 
students.  My  exhibition  called  people  from  all 
around,  and  it  filled  the  church  where  we  had  the 
exhibition,  and  we  had  a  grand  time,  and  we  were 
to  have  a  vacation  of  two  months  of  the  summer. 
During  my  first  vacation  I  went'  North  to  get  mar- 
ried. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  49 


CHAPTER   V. 


GOT  MAKEIED. 

Believing  it  to  be  the  duty  of  every  man  after 
arriving  at  mature  years  to  marry,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four  years  I  went  North,  where  I  had  left 
my  sweetheart  two  years  and  half  before,  the  one 
out  of  the  same  group  that  had  so  interested  me 
when  we  first  met,  six  years  ago.  We  were  mar- 
ried at  her  home  in  West  Sandwich,  Mass.,  now 
called  Sagmore,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
the  sixth  day  of  August,  1859,  and  took  the  cars 
for  New  York  City.  Then  we  took  the  steamer 
for  Savannah,  Ga.  We  were  seasick  on  the  way 
for  a  day  or  two,  but  we  recovered  ourselves 
shortly.  When  we  arrived  at  Savannah,  Ga.,  we 
took  the  cars  for  Cuthbert,  Ga.  When  we  arrived 
there  we  took  a  carriage  for  Springvale  Institute, 
where  my  school  was.  I  named  my  school  Spring- 
vale  Institute,  which  name  remains  to  this  day. 
The  place  bore  the  name  Springvale  after  my 


50  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

school,  and  has  become  quite  a  town.  There  are 
two  railroads  there  now.  We  were  received  with 
much  eclat,  The  people  turned  out  and  gave  us  a 
warm  reception,  because  a  bride  and  groom  had 
arrived.  I  received  congratulations  on  every  side, 
because  I  had  succeeded  in  marrying  such  a  beau- 
tiful wife  During  my  trip  North  I  met  a  lady,  by 
name  Miss  Leavett,  who  lived  in  Meredith  Village, 
New  Hampshire,  who  came  south  as  a  teacher  of 
music.  When  she  arrived  there  on  September 
following  she  was  very  much  disgusted  to  think 
she  had  come  three  thousand  miles  to  teach  music 
to  scholars  who  lived  in  the  woods.  But  she  bore 
up  under  it  and  taught  there  successfully  for  a 
year. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  51 


CHAPTER  VI. 


TEACHING  CONTINUED. 

On  September  1,  1859,  the  fall  term  of  school 
opened.  I  had  seventy-five  pupils.  In  the  mean- 
time while  I  was  gone  North  to  get  married,  the 
neighborhood  had  built  me  a  fine  school-house 
costing  two  thousand  dollars,  which  sum  was  made 
up  by  subscription.  It  was  a  two-story  building, 
and  had  three  school  rooms.  The  downstairs  room 
was  used  for  morning  devotions  and  music,  the 
upstairs  was  used  for  teaching  the  classes.  The 
people  were  so  interested  in  the  school  that  they 
would  send  their  children  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  I  opened  my  school  at  eight  o  'clock  and 
taught  until  five  o'clock  in  the  evening,  with  one 
hour  recess  at  noon.  My  work  was  so  hard  that  I 
was  reduced  to  almost  a  skeleton,  and  Miss  Leavett 
said  never  was  a  teacher  so  worked  as  I  was.  But 
I  had  to  have  a  house  to  live  in,  and  that  fall  I 
built  me  a  dwelling,  the  only  house  in  the  Spring- 


52  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

vale  Institute  district,  excepting  the  school-house, 
so  I  built  the  first  house  in  the  town  of  Springvale. 
So  I  am  the  founder  of  the  town  of  Springvale. 
There  was  nothing  unusual  happened  the  first  year 
of  school.  At  the  close  of  the  first  year  Miss 
Leavett  closed  her  work  with  me  and  went  North, 
and  I  was  left  at  the  opening  of  the  civil  war  to 
battle  with  my  Yankeesim.  I  was  a  Yankee,  and 
they  all  knew  it.  Although  I  had  shown  no 
proclivities  against  slavery,  all  who  knew  me  be- 
came attached  to  me.  But  when  the  war  broke 
out  every  Yankee  had  to  show  his  hand.  But  I 
had  a  family  now,  and  all  I  had  in  the  world  was 
invested  there,  and  I  could  not  get  away.  Al- 
though I  was  a  Northern  man,  after  seeing  the 
workings  of  slavery  for  about  a  year,  I  had  be- 
come convinced  that  slavery  was  not  so  bad  as  it 
had  been  represented  to  me,  and  I  fell  in  with  it. 
While  the  people  were  investigating  me  as  to  my 
ideas  of  slavery,  the  bone  of  contention,  there 
were  some  who  did  not  know  me  who  were  for 
driving  me  out  of  the  country,  but  those  who  knew 
me  stood  by  me.  During  a  meeting  of  the  citizens 
who  met  to  investigate  me,  was  present  one  of  my 
friends,  James  Foster.  He  said  he  had  a  gun  that 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  53 

would  shoot  seven  times  and  if  anybody  touched 
me  he  would  shoot  it  at  them  seven  times.  So  he 
sent  for  his  carriage  and  brought  me  and  my 
family  to  his  house  where  I  remained  two  weeks 
in  seclusion  until  the  excitement  had  abated.  I 
then  volunteered  as  a  soldier  in  the  Southern  army 
and  went  to  the  front.  My  company,  the  Quitman 
Greys,  went  on  the  cars  to  Strausberg,  Va.,  where 
we  took  our  first  tramp  for  Winchester,  Va.  On 
my  way  from  Strausberg  to  Winchester,  when 
about  half  way,  I  fell  with  a  sunstroke.  The  whole 
regiment  halted  for  an  hour  and  gathered  around 
me.  It  was  decided  by  Col.  Geary  and  officers 
that  I  should  remain  by  the  wayside  while  the 
regiment  passed  on.  Two  young  men  who  were 
pupils  of  mine  in  my  school  at  home,  by  the  name 
of  Phillips,  were  detailed  to  wait  on  me.  I  was 
taken  to  a  wayside  inn  and  stayed  there  three 

days.    One  of  the  days  was  Sunday,  the  Battle  of 

* 
Bull  Run.    We  were  in  the  church  and  heard  the 

rattle  of  the  musketry.  After  three  days  I  suf- 
ficiently recovered  to  join  my  regiment.  We  got 
a  team  and  drove  on  to  Winchester  where  we 
learned  that  the  day  before  my  regiment  had  been 
ordered  to  Bull  Run.  We  got  on  a  freight  car  and 


54  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

went  to  Bull  Run  where  I  joined  my  regiment  that 
was  camped  in  a  swamp.  We  soon  moved  out  on 
the  higher  land,  where  I  remained  in  my  tent  sev- 
eral days,  and  I  being  a  feeble  man,  together  with 
the  effects  of  the  sunstroke  prevented  me  from 
being  a  soldier,  and  I  was  honorably  discharged 
and  sent 'home.  On  this  trip  I  never  saw  an  army 
and  never  heard  a  gun  fired.  When  I  arrived 
home  I  was  sick.  I  was  met  at  the  station  by  sev- 
eral of  my  people  and  taken  to  their  home  in  a 
carriage.  I  then  sent  for  my  family.  I  remained 
at  the  house  of  Mr.  Thompson  several  days.  In 
the  meantime,  while  I  was  away  as  a  soldier,  Maj. 
Goneka,  who  was  incapable  to  be  a  soldier  on  ac- 
count of  poor  health,  had  moved  to  my  house  with 
his  family.  I  was  taken  from  Mr.  Thompson's 
house  with  my  family  to  my  house  and  boarded 
with  Maj.  Goneka  for  a  few  weeks.  Salt  had  be- 
come a  great  scarcity,  and  I  told  Maj.  Goneka 
that  if  he  would  furnish  me  with  a  pair  of  mules 
and  wagon  I  would  go  to  Florida  and  get  a  load 
of  salt  for  his  family  and  mine.  He  accepted  my 
proposition  and  I  started  for  Florida,  one  hundred 
miles  away,  where  they  were  making  salt  from  sea 
water.  I  got  a  load  of  salt  and  took  it  home  and 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  55 

gave  Maj.  Goneka  his  share.  So  scarce  was 
everything  in  the  country  that  I  had  no  sacks  to  put 
my  salt  in,  so  I  took  up  my  carpet  and  made  it  into 
sacks  to  hold  the  salt;  so  that  after  that  during 
the  war  I  had  no  carpets  for  my  floor.  I  sold  some 
of  my  salt  for  one  hundred  dollars  per  sack  in 
confederate  money.  After  boarding  with  Maj. 
Goneka  for  three  weeks  I  went  over  to  live  in  a 
one-room  log  house  in  a  sweet  potato  patch,  full 
of  nice  sweet  potatoes  which  I  was  permitted  by 
Maj.  Goneka  to  use.  After  I  had  sold  my  house  I 
went  over  Pataula  Creek  and  took  another  school. 
I  lived  in  a  two-room  log  house.  The  war  was  on 
us,  the  people  had  no  money  to  pay  me  for  tuition, 
and  I  took  corn  and  pork  for  my  tuition.  I  taught 
school  there  for  one  year  and  then  moved  to  a 
place  called  Bethel,  eight  miles  away,  and  opened 
up  a  school,  which  I  taught  until  the  close  of  the 
war.  During  the  war  I  had  to  do  something  else 
besides  teaching  school  for  a  living,  so  I  rented 
some  land  and  hired  negroes  to  cultivate  it.  I  was 
in  this  condition  when  the  war  closed.  After  the 
war  closed  I  received  a  letter  from  a  man  who  had 
been  a  captured  rebel  in  a  Northern  prison,  and 
being  benefited  by  my  wife's  sister,  Mrs.  Rebecca 


56  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

Burgess,  who  sent  food  and  clothing  to  the  prison- 
ers, she  found  that  he  was  going  home,  and  lived 
within  fifty  miles  of  her  sister,  and  she  had  her 
father  to  entrust  him  with  money  for  her  sister. 
After  arriving  at  his  home  he  sent  me  word  he 
had  fifty  dollars  in  greenbacks  which  was  given 
him  by  my  wife's  father  to  take  home  and  give  to 
me.  I  rode  fifty  miles  on  horse-back  to  get  the 
money.  I  got  the  money  and  with  it  bought  tickets 
to  Boston,  Mass.,  for  my  wife  and  children  by  the 
way  of  the  West.  It  took  them  eight  days  to 
reach  Boston.  Then  at  Boston  they  had  to  buy 
another  ticket  for  West  Sandwich. 

I  was  left  alone  in  Georgia.  I  got  a  private 
school  four  miles  away,  supported  by  Amus 
Ward.  He  gave  me  one  hundred  dollars  per  month 
and  board  in  greenbacks  for  teaching  the  school. 
He  invited  all  the  neighbors '  children  around  to 
go  to  the  school.  I  taught  there  about  three 
months  and  became  desirous  of  going  home; 
I  sold  my  house  and  lot  in  Bethel  for  about 
six  hundred  dollars  in  greenbacks  and  gathered 
together  what  money  I  could  from  those  whom  I 
had  taught,  which  amounted  to  about  twelve  hun- 
dred dollars.  I  took  this  money  to  a  Mr.  Morris, 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  57 

a  particular  friend  of  mine  who  was  a  dealer  in 
cotton.  He  sold  me  twelve  hundred  dollars  worth 
of  cotton.  The  cotton  was  already  shipped  and 
on  its  way  to  New  York.  He  gave  me  a  bill  of 
laden  and  I  started  for  New  York  City.  On  my 
way  I  visited  my  brother  William  who  lived  in 
Almira,  New  York  and  from  there  I  went  on  to 
Cape  Cod,  where  I  found  my  family  at  her 
father's.  After  staying  there  a  few  days  I  went 
back  to  Almjira,  New  York,  where  my  brother  was 
and  bought  out  a  half  interest  in  his  restaurant. 
After  I  had  been  there  a  few  days  word  came  to 
me  that  Mr.  Morris,  from  whom  I  had  bought  the 
cotton,  was  in  New  York  City.  I  took  the  first 
train  for  New  York  City  and  arrived  there  in  the 
morning,  and  went  to  the  hotel  where  he  was  stop- 
ping, and  registered.  I  ask  the  clerk  if  Mr.  Morris 
was  there  and  he  said  "Yes,  he  is  in  the  dining- 
room."  The  first  person  I  saw  was  Mr.  Morris 
sitting  at  a  table,  eating.  I  did  not  make  myself 
known  to  him  then,  but  took  a  seat  back  of  him. 
He  finished  his  breakfast  before  I  did  and  went 
into  the  office.  I  soon  followed  him  and  at  the  desk 
I  said  "Good  morning,  Mr.  Morris. "  He  turned 
and  recognized  me  and  was  very  glad  to  meet  me 


58  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

and  said,  "Let  us  go  to  my  room."  We  went  to 
his  room  and  talked  matters  over.  The  cotton  had 
not  yet  arrived  and  I  told  him  I  needed  the  money. 
He  figured  up  what  the  cotton  would  be  worth 
when  it  arrived.  It  amounted  to  about  twelve  hun- 
dred dollars  which  he  paid  me.  We  then  went  out 
on  the  street,  and  in  passing  by  a  jewelry  shop,  he 
said,  "Let  us  go  in."  We  went  in  and  he  said, 
"Now  pick  out  a  watch."  I  picked  out  a  cheap 
watch  and  the  price  was  fifteen  dollars,  which  he 
paid  and  handed  it  to  me  and  said, '  *  This  is  for  you 
to  remember  me  by,  as  we  shall  probably  never 
meet  again."  We  parted  and  we  have  never  met 
since,  but  I  have  learned  he  became  very  wealthy 
as  a  cotton  dealer. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  59 


CHAPTER  VII. 


WENT  INTO  THE  RESTAURANT  BUSINESS  WITH  MY 
BROTHER  IN  ALMIRA,  NEW  YORK,  AND  OTHER 
CHANGES. 

I  sent  for  my  family  who  stopped  with  my  wife's 
father  in  West  Sandwich  since  their  return  from 
the  South.  We  rented  rooms  in  Almira,  New 
York,  and  lived  there.  I  soon  learned  that  the 
restaurant  business  was  not  sufficient  to  support 
two,  so  I  sold  out  my  interest  to  my  brother,  sent 
my  family  back  to  her  father's  in  West  Sandwich 
and  left  again  for  the  South.  I  went  to  Mobile, 
Ala.,  where  I  had  an  uncle  living  by  the  name  of 
Smith.  I  stopped  with  him  a  few  days,  but  could 
find  nothing  to  do  to  earn  any  money  in  Mobile.  I 
took  the  steamer  for  New  Orleans  and  then  took 
another  steamer  for  Galveston,  Texas.  I  took  the 
stage  for  the  interior  of  Texas.  While  in  Mobile 
I  changed  my  money  from  greenbacks  to  gold, 
which  amounted  to  about  six  hundred  dollars. 


60  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

Having  arrived  in  Texas  I  found  the  country  so 
vast,  and  it  required  a  good  deal  of  money  to  en- 
gage in  the  cattle  business,  for  which  I  went 
there.  After  staying  there  a  few  weeks  I  decided 
it  was  best  for  me,  not  having  much  money,  to  go 
back  to  New  England.  I  then  started  on  my  long 
journey  home.  Before  going  to  West  Sandwich, 
Mass.,  when  I  arrived  in  Boston  I  went  to  Man- 
chester, New  Hampshire,  where  I  had  a  sister  liv- 
ing. Her  husband  was  an  overseer  in  a  cotton 
mill.  I  told  him  I  wanted  work.  He  took  me  to 
the  mill  and  I  was  given  a  position  in  the  mill  at 
a  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  a  day  and  boarded 
myself.  I  left  the  job  because  it  did  not  pay  me, 
and  went  up  town  and  bought  a  few  things  to  sell. 
I  started  out  to  sell  these  things  and  found  that 
they  netted  me  so  little  profit  that  I  could  not 
afford  to  continue.  In  the  meantime  my  wife  had 
come  from  West  Sandwich,  where  I  had  sent  for 
her,  and  we  decided  that  it  was  best  for  us  to  go 
back  to  West  Sandwich  where  I  could  get  the  posi- 
tion as  principal  of  the  High  School  at  Monument 
for  sixty-five  dollars  per  month  and  board  myself, 
four  miles  away  from  West  Sandwich.  I  went  up 
on  the  cars  in  the  morning  and  returned  in  the 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  61 

evening.  While  teaching  there  Thomas  Eli,  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  Methodist  Church,  invited  me 
to  go  to  West  Falmouth  and  supply  the  church  as 
a  preacher.  This  place  was  twelve  miles  from 
Monument,  and  was  reached  only  by  stage.  I  went 
up  on  Saturday  by  stage,  preached  two  sermons 
on  Sunday  and  attended  the  Sabbath  school,  and 
returned  on  Monday  to  my  school,  opening  at  nine 
o'clock.  I  taught  school  through  the  week  and 
repeated  the  transaction  every  week  for  three 
years.  I  was  very  popular  as  a  young  preacher. 
The  High  School  was  a  rotation  school  as  well,  and 
was  held  at  Sandwich,  Mass.,  one-half  of  the  time, 
so  I  taught  at  Monument  one-half  of  the  time  and 
at  Sandwich  the  other  half. 


62  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


ENGAGED  IN  THE  LIFE  INSURANCE  BUSINESS. 

While  teaching  school  at  Monument  there  came 
to  me  a  life  insurance  agent.  He  presented  the 
subject  with  such  glowing  colors  that  I  became 
interested,,  but  told  him  that  I  was  not  able  to  pay 
the  premium  on  any  insurance  policy.  He  sug- 
gested that  he  make  me  an  agent  and  that  I  could 
insure  other  people,  and  thereby  receive  money 
from  commissions  to  pay  my  own  premium.  He 
insured  me  for  two  thousand  dollars  on  a  twenty- 
year  endowment,  which  I  never  received,  because 
the  company  failed.  I  was  then  thirty-four  years 
of  age  and  the  policy  would  be  paid  to  me  at  fifty- 
four.  I  started  out  then  during  my  leisure  time 
to  canvass  for  insurance.  I  was  very  successful 
and  got  many  applications  for  policies.  So  much 
so  that  I  interested  the  branch  office,  located  at 
Boston,  and  they  sent  for  me  to  come  to  the  office 
and  offered  to  pay  my  expenses.  I  went  and  we 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  63 

made  an  arrangement  whereby  I  should  receive 
one  thousand  dollars  per  year  and  expenses.  But 
what  should  I  do  with  my  school  and  church  that  I 
was  pastor  of?  They  told  me  to  get  another 
teacher,  but  I  could  preach  on  Sundays  as  usual. 
I  went  to  Dartmouth  College,  N.  H.,  and  engaged 
a  teacher  to  succeed  me.  I  then  went  to  work  as  a 
life  insurance  agent.  I  was  so  successful  in  getting 
applications  for  policies  that  they  sent  for  me  to 
come  to  the  office  again.  When  there  I  made  an- 
other arrangement  whereby  I  should  receive  two 
thousand  dollars  a  year  and  expenses,  and  preach 
at  the  same  time  on  Sundays.  I  was  sent  to  New 
Bedford  and  took  an  office  there.  After  working 
about  two  years  they  wanted  me  to  go  to  Vermont. 
I  gave  up  my  ministry  and  went  to  Eutland,  Vt., 
and  took  an  office.  My  business  was  to  travel  all 
over  the  State  and  appoint  agents  for  life  insur- 
ance as  I  had  been  so  successful  in  appointing  suc- 
cessful agents  in  other  places.  After  working  for 
a  year  or  so  with  office  at  Rutland,  it  was  found 
more  convenient  for  me  to  locate  at  Burlington, 
Vermont.  My  salary  was  raised  from  two  thou- 
sand to  three  thousand  dollars  and  expenses.  I 
located  at  Burlington,  Vermont,  and  decided  I 


64  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

wanted  my  family  with  me,  but  had  to  have  a  house 
to  live  in.  I  bought  lots  and  engaged  a  contractor 
to  build  me  a  house  of  seven  rooms  that  would 
cost  thirty-two  hundred  dollars.  The  house  was 
located  on  Union  Street  in  sight  of  Lake  Oham- 
plain  where  we  had  a  beautiful  view  of  steamers 
passing  and  repassing.  Having  built  my  new  home 
I  sent  for  my  family,  who  were  living  at  West 
Sandwich,  and  moved  to  Burlington,  Vermont,  to 
my  new  home.  After  working  about  a  year  my 
success  as  a  life  insurance  agent  began  to  fail,  be- 
cause there  were  so  many  men  in  the  business. 
Almost  every  man  I  would  meet  was  a  life  insur- 
ance agent.  All  the  preachers  and  school  teachers 
and  business  men  went  into  the  business.  I  became 
disgusted  and  gave  up  my  salary  of  three  thou- 
sand dollars,  which  had  under  contract  one  year 
longer  to  run,  because  I  could  not  earn  my  salary. 
I  then  met  Mr.  Holland,  who  was  a  prominent 
publisher  of  the  Bible.  I  engaged  with  him  to  sell 
his  Bible  for  five  dollars  a  day  and  expenses.  I 
canvassed  for  the  Bible  about  one  month,  but  met 
with  no  success.  I  gave  up  the  job.  There  came 
to  me  at  that  time  a  man  by  name  of  Joseph  Inhoff 
from  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  who  was  a  land  agent 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  65 

from  Nebraska.  I  engaged  with  him  as  a  partner 
to  sell  lands.  We  sold  some  land  in  Burlington  at 
a  good  profit,  but  he  had  to  go  home  to  Lincoln, 
Nebraska,  and  insisted  I  should  visit  Lincoln  in 
the  near  future  to  see  the  country.  I  went,  and  on 
my  way,  I  was  so  pleased  with  the  rolling  prairies 
that  I  wrote  back  home  saying  it  was  not  in  the 
power  of  tongue  or  pen  to  describe  the  beauties 
of  that  country.  Lincoln,  the  capital  of  the  State, 
had  about  two  thousand  inhabitants.  Lincoln  is 
located  in  a  little  valley  and  as  I  stood  upon  the 
streets  one  day  talking  with  some  gentleman,  I 
was  enthused  at  the  prospects  that  surrounded  me. 
I  said  that  I  expect  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  the 
city  would  spread  out  and  fill  the  horizon  of  the 
valley,  which  was  six  miles  away  on  each  side.  My 
prophecy  has  been  literally  fulfilled,  for  that  coun- 
try has  been  nearly  covered  with  houses. 


66  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER  IX. 


ENGAGED  IN  FARMING. 

I  bought  a  six  hundred  and  forty-acre  farm  in 
Otoe  County,  Nebraska,  from  the  railroad  com- 
pany at  eight  dollars  per  acre.  I  built  a  house 
and  barn  on  it,  and  went  to  Burlington,  Vermont, 
for  my  family.  While  traveling  to  Otoe  County  at 
St.  Albans  I  was  robbed  of  my  pocket-book  and 
tickets.  While  going  into  the  car  I  was  met  by  two 
or  three  persons  who  crowded  me  very  hard.  I 
sa-id  "do  not  hurry,  gentlemen,  there  is  plenty  of 
time. ' '  Then  they  left  me.  After  going  into  the  car 
and  the  car  had  started  I  found  I  was  robbed. 
Everything  was  done  to  catch  the  robbers,  without 
success.  I  then  had  to  buy  new  tickets  and  lost 
my  pocket-book  containing  fifty  dollars.  On  ar- 
riving in  Otoe  County  with  my  family  I  broke  up 
one  hundred  acres  of  prairie  land  and  planted  it 
in  sod  corn.  I  made  a  good  crop  of  sod  corn.  I 
bought  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  head  of  Texas 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  67 

steers  and  hired  a  boy  to  herd  them  on  my  farm. 
I  cut  one  hundred  tons  of  prairie  hay  and  stacked 
it  around  my  coral.  I  gathered  my  corn  which 
made  about  twelve  thousand  bushels.  I  had  also 
a  lot  of  hogs  that  run  with  the  cattle.  I  fed  them 
hay  and  corn  during  the  winter.  The  weather  was 
so  cold  at  times  that  it  killed  the  weaker  ones,  so 
that  I  in  the  spring,  in  place  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty-six,  had  a  hundred  that  were  spring  poor. 
I  herded  them  out  on  my  farm  again  until  fall. 
When  I  found  they  were  eating  their  heads  off,  I 
arranged  with  Gov.  Buttler  to  take  them  to  Chi- 
cago and  sell  them.  He  also  marketed  my  hogs.  T 
found  by  this  experience  that  I  was  not  a  farmer, 
so  I  rented  the  place  and  moved  with  my  family 
to  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  eighteen  miles  away.  I 
there  bought  a  half  interest  of  C.  M.  Parker  in 
the  hardware  business.  I  obtained  the  money  to 
do  this  by  borrowing  eight  hundred  dollars  from 
a  Mr.  Ogden,  and  gave  him  as  security  my  one 
hundred  and  ten  acres  of  land.  I  lost  this  and  the 
one  hundred  and  ten  acres  when  the  store  was 
closed  up.  I  rented  my  house,  but  built  another 
one  costing  me  eleven  hundred  dollars  on  a  lot  on 
which  was  a  mortgage  of  four  hundred  and  fifty 


68  The  Life  of.  a  New  England  Boy 

dollars.  We  had  but  poor  success  in  our  business 
and  the  business  very  much  declined.  About  this 
time  there  was  a  new  county  formed  thirty  miles 
away  which  had  for  its  county  seat  a  town  by  the 
name  of  David  City,  where  we  opened  up  a  branch 
store,  and  it  was  decided  that  I  should  go  there 
and  run  the  store  while  Mr.  Parker  run  the  home 
store  in  Lincoln.  Our  business  continued  to  de- 
cline, and  we  soon  found  that  we  could  not  pay  our 
bills  so  we  were  closed  up  by  our  creditors  in 
Chicago.  After  we  had  been  closed  up  a  few  weeks 
we  managed  to  raise  sufficient  money  to  pay  off 
the  debts,  and  opened  up  again.  We  run  the  store 
about  one  year  longer  and  again  closed  up  for  want 
of  money  to  pay  our  bills.  I  then  moved  the  goods 
in  my  store,  David  City  to  Lincoln,  Nebraska, 
where  I  sold  out  my  interest  in  the  store  to  Mr. 
Parker,  and  all  I  received  for  my  share  was  a  re- 
ceipt in  full  from  him,  which  was  eighteen  hundred 
dollars  which  I  had  put  in  the  store.  I  lost  it  all 
and  four  years  time,  except  I  had  enough  out  of 
it  to  support  my  family,  and  that  he  would  pay 
the  debts.  He  run  the  store  a  few  months  and 
closed  it  up. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  69 


CHAPTER   X. 


CANVASSING,  ICE  CREAM  AND  REAL  ESTATE  BUSINESS. 

After  I  had  gone  put  of  the  store  I  was  out  of 
business.  I  tried  various  means  for  a  livelihood, 
but  found  nothing  until  I  struck  a  man  who  wanted 
me  to  go  to  Kansas  to  canvass  for  the  enlargement 
of  pictures.  I  went  and  successfully  canvassed  for 
the  enlargement  of  pictures.  After  a  few  months' 
work  in  that  line  I  had  saved  up  a  few  dollars  and 
bought  a  stereopticon  which  I  exhibited  through 
the  country  until  I  became  disgusted  with  my  poor 
success.  I  then  received  a  letter  from  home  from 
Lillian,  my  youngest  daughter,  who  said  that  her 
mother  was  sick  and  that  I  must  come  home.  I 
went  home  and  found  her  health  much  improved. 
After  staying  at  home  a  few  weeks  I  went  to 
Omaha,  Neb.,  where  I  canvassed  for  books.  After 
canvassing  a  few  weeks  I  became  disgusted  with 
my  poor  success  and  went  home  again.  '  After  look- 
ing about  for  something  else  to  do  I  met  a  man 


70  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

by  the  name  of  Small  who  had  an  ice  cream  parlor. 
I  went  into  his  place  of 'business  and  asked  him  if 
he  would  sell  out.  He  replied  that  he  would  and 
that  his  price  was  two  hundred  and  eighty  dollars. 
I  told  him  that  I  had  but  two  hundred  dollars.  I 
had  saved  this  in  my  canvassing.  He  said  that  I 
could  give  him  two  hundred  dollars  and  pay  the 
eighty  dollars  out  of  the  earnings  of  the  parlor. 
In  the  meantime,  while  I  was  canvassing,  my  wife 
had  supported  the  family  by  keeping  boarders  in 
a  house  I  had  built,  and  put  the  title  in  her  name 
on  which  there  was  a  mortgage  of  four  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars.  I  then  took  charge  of  the  ice 
cream  parlor.  Mr.  Small  made  the  ice  cream  and 
I  sold  quite  a  good  deal  of  cream  and  cake.  I  was 
alone  and  did  all  the  work,  but  on  the  eleventh  day 
of  August  there  came  Barnum's  Circus  to  Lincoln. 
His  circus  was  world-wide  in  reputation  and  drew 
a  large  crowd.  The  railroads  that  centered  in 
Lincoln  brought  in  great  crowds  of  people  from 
everywhere,  so  that  they  filled  the  town  full  of 
people,  so  much  so  that  by  twelve  o  'clock  there  was 
not  a  thing  to  eat  in  town.  People  flocked  to  my 
ice  cream  parlor  for  something  to  eat.  I  could 
give  them  nothing  but  ice  cream.  Among  those 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  71 

who  came  was  a  lady  from  Topeka,  Kansas,  who 
had  just  arrived  on  the  train.  She  came  into  the 
parlor  and  asked  for  something  to  eat.  I  told  her 
I  could  give  her  nothing  but  ice  cream.  She  said 
that  was  better  than  nothing  and  took  a  seat  and 
ate  her  ice  cream.  Then  she  came  to  the  counter 
where  I  was  cashier  and  paid  her  bill.  She  then 
asked  me  if  I  could  tell  her  where  she  could  get  a 
room.  As  the  town  seemed  to  be  full  of  people,  I 
told  her  that  my  wife  was  keeping  a  boarding- 
house  and  that  I  thought  that  she  could  get  a  room 
there.  She  gave  her  name  as  Mrs.  Carrie  S.  Tufts. 
She  got  a  room  at  my  wife's.  The  next  morning 
I  found  on  counting  up  my  cash  that  I  had  taken 
in  one-hundred  and  twenty-six  dollars  and  a  half. 
I  had  sold  sixty  gallons  of  ice  cream  and  some 
cake.  I  paid  Mr.  Small  sixty  dollars  for  the  cream. 
The  next  morning  at  the  breakfast  table  Mrs. 
Tufts  asked  me  if  I  could  tell  her  where  she  could 
get  something  to  do.  I  asked  her  what  could  she 
do  and  she  said  she  had  worked  in  an  ice  cream 
parlor  and  had  worked  in  a  restaurant  and  a  mil- 
liner's store  and  was  handy  at  most  anything.  I 
told  her  I  needed  a  lady  in  my  ice  cream  parlor  and 
she  said  she  would  accept  a  position  there.  We 


72  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

went  down  to  the  parlor  she  commenced  her  work, 
and  she  worked  for  me  in  ice  cream  parlors  and 
rooming-houses  for  twenty-one  years  and  died  in 
the  bath-tub  asphyxiated  by  the  gas.  She  was 
of  such  splendid  help  that  I  could  not  get  along 
without  her.  I  run  the  ice  cream  parlor  until  the 
cold  weather  set  in  and  then  converted  it  into  a 
restaurant.  I  made  seventeen  hundred  dollars 
within  one  year.  Then  I  built  an  addition  to  my 
house  of  seventeen  rooms  and  made  it  a  hotel 
which  I  called  the  Central  House.  I  sold  out  my 
restaurant  and  went  there  to  run  the  hotel.  After 
running  the  house  about  two  years  I  rented  it  for 
about  fifty  dollars  per  month  and  I  went  to  live 
in  the  next  house  wjiich  I  had  bought  beside  tins 
house;  that  I  had  bought  was  a  small  Swedish 
Church  on  the  corner.  I  bought  this  church,  raised 
up  the  roof  and  made  a  two-story  building  of  it. 
Downstairs  I  had  made  into  a  store  and  upstairs 
were  rooms  for  renting.  Between  this  house  and 
the  one  I  had  bought  was  twelve  feet  space  on 
which  I  built  another  story  and  put  rooms  above. 
I  built  on  the  rear  of  the  store  a  one-story  dress- 
making store.  I  tKen  built  in  front  of  the  first 
building  I  had  bought  there,  four  rooms,  two  up- 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  73 

stairs  and  two  downstairs  on  the  same  lot  on  which 
the  hotel  was.  I  built  another  house  two  stories 
high  on  the  alley  side.  I  built  a  house  two  stories 
high  and  a  basement  consisting  of  fourteen  rooms 
apart  of  which  I  occupied  and  rented  the  balance. 
I  then  had  a  hotel,  a  dwelling  house,  three  stores 
and  twenty  rooms.  At  that  time  an  excursion  was 
formed  to  go  to  California.  Mrs.  Tufts  had  gone 
to  California  the  spring  before.  The  excursion 
which  we  joined  stopped  at  Sacramento,  where  we 
found  Mrs.  Tufts.  In  a  few  days  we  went  on  to  San 
Francisco,  where  I  bought  a  restaurant  for  Mrs. 
Tufts.  After  spending  the  winter  in  San  Fran- 
cisco until  March  my  wife  and  I  left  Mrs.  Tufts 
in  San  Francisco  and  started  home  East.  We  went 
to  San  Jose  where  we  stopped  a  few  days  and  then 
we  went  on  to  Fresno,  Cal.  I  negotiated  to  buy  a 
vineyard  and  sixteen  lots  in  the  City  of  Fresno 
from  S.  H.  Cole,  a  real  estate  dealer,  but  did  not 
consummate  the  trade.  We  then  went  on  to  Los 
Angeles,  where  we  remained  about  a  week,  and 
finding  property  so  high  I  did  not  buy  anything. 
They  took  me  out  four  or  five  miles  from  the  city 
and  showed  me  land  that  stood  upright  for  which 
they  wanted  six  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  an  acre. 


74  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

I  asked  them  what  I  could  do  with  such  land  to 
make  any  money.  They  said,  "Raise  the  price 
and  sell  it."  The  land  was  afterward  sold  for 
seven  hundred  dollars.  In  the  meantime  I  had 
numerous  offers  for  my  property  in  Lincoln,  all  of 
which  I  turned  down.  We  then  went  on  to  Lincoln, 
our  home.  As  soon  as  I  arrived  in  Lincoln,  real 
estate  men  flocked  around  me  and  wanted  to  buy 
my  place  there.  After  much  conversation  I  sold 
it  to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  folks  who  wanted  it  to  build 
a  fine  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building  on  it.  I  received  for 
what  cost  me  twelve  thousand  dollars,  forty-five 
thousand  dollars.  It  was  said  to  be  the  best  sale 
ever  made  in  Lincoln  up  to  that  time.  The  cause 
of  the  sale  was  I  donated  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  I  received  twenty  thousand 
dollars  in  cash  and  the  balance  in  notes,  with  mort- 
gage for  the  balance  to  run  two  years  at  eight  per 
cent  interest.  I  then  went  to  Beatrice,  Nebraska, 
and  bought  a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
acres,  right  across  the  Blue  Eiver  in  view  of  the 
city,  for  which  I  paid  nineteen  thousand  and  five 
hundred  dollars.  I  surveyed  this  into  lots  and  put 
it  on  the  market  for  sale,  but  met  with  poor  suc- 
cess, because  I  placed  the  price  of  the  lots  too 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  75 

high,  which  was  two  hundred  and  fifty  apiece.  I 
then  went  to  Lincoln  and  made  arrangements  to 
return  to  Fresno,  Gal.  On  arriving  in  Fresno  I 
bought  the  sixteen  lots  for  which  I  had  arranged 
before  I  went  East,  for  which  I  paid  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars,  and  in  a  few  weeks  I  sold  them 
for  sixty-four  hundred  dollars,  making  a  fine 
speculation.  I  then  bought  two  hundred  acres  on 
Blackstone  Avenue,  two  miles  north  of  the  city, 
which  was  then  a  barley  field.  I  negotiated  with 
Thomas  E.  Hughes  to  buy  five  lots  on  the  corner 
of  Tulare  and  J  Streets  for  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars,  and  then  went  East.  While  East  I  com- 
pleted the  sale  and  sent  Thomas  E.  Hughes  ten 
thousand  dollars  and  a  mortgage  back  for  fifteen 
thousand  dollars. 

I  went  East  that  season  because  I  had  promised 
Myrtie  (Lillian),  my  youngest  daughter,  that  I 
would  go  East  to  our  old  home  in  West  Sandwich, 
Mass.  After  visiting  my  wife's  people  we  went  to 
New  Hampshire,  where  we  visited  New  Hampton 
school  from  which  I  had  graduated  years  before. 
After  visiting  our  relatives  there  a  few  weeks  we 
returned  to  our  Lincoln  homo,  where  I  arranged 
to  move  my  family  to  Fresno,  Cal.  While  they 


76  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

remained  in  Lincoln  I  went  to  Fresno  and  built  a 
house  and  barn  on  the  two  hundred  acres  I  had 
bought  there.  In  about  three  months  my  family 
came  on  from  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  and  took  pos- 
session of  the  new  home  I  had  built  on  the  two 
hundred  acres.  In  the  meantime  I  was  engaged 
in  the  real  estate  business  with  two  gentlemen 
partners  by  the  name  of  Harvy  and  Thomas.  The 
firm's  name  was  Harvy,  Thomas  and  Edgerly, 
located  under  the  Grand  Central  Hotel.  Among 
other  things  we  did,  we  bought  one  hundred  and 
twenty  acres  of  wheat  land,  which  we  called  Bel- 
mont  addition  to  Fresno  for  which  we  paid  eigh- 
teen thousand  and  five  hundred  dollars.  We  sur- 
veyed the  land  into  lots  and  put  it  on  the  market 
for  sale  which  sold  very  rapidly,  so  that  in  three 
months  time  we  had  sold  all  of  it,  excepting  three 
blocks  which  we  reserved  a  block  each  for  each 
member  of  the  firm.  Mr.  Harvy  and  Thomas  sold 
theirs  very  soon  and  I  kept  my  block  and  did  not 
sell  it  all  for  fifteen  years.  This  addition  has  now 
become  a  prominent  part  of  the  city. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  77 


CHAPTER  XL 


BUILT  THE  EDGERLY  BLOCK. 

After  a  few  weeks  I  went  to  Dry  Creek  on  Black- 
stone  Avenue,  where  I  bought  five  acres  of  clay 
land  for  which  I  paid  three  thousand  dollars  to 
make  brick  on.  Having  made  the  brick,  one  million 
in  number,  I  hauled  them  to  Fresno  and  built  the 
Edgerly  Block,  a  building  which  is  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  long  and  seventy  feet  wide  and  three 
stories  high.  I  bought  the  pressed  brick  for  the 
front  in  San  Francisco,  which  cost  me  twelve  and 
a  half  cents  apiece  when  laid  in  the  wall.  The 
whole  building  proper  cost  me  fifty-three  thousand 
dollars.  It  was  then  considered  one  of  the  finest 
buildings  in  Fresno.  I  had  bought  various  pieces 
of  land,  for  which  I  paid  part  cash  and  gave  mort- 
gage for  the  balance.  In  all  of  my  dealings  in 
real  estate  during  this  time  I  had  given  mortgages 
to  the  amount  of  sixty-six  thousand  dollars.  Prop- 
erty began  to  decline  and  I  could  sell  nothing; 


THE  EDGER.LY  BLOCK,   FRESNO 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  79 

rents  went  down  and  I  soon  found  myself  badly 
handicapped.  The  Fresno  National  Bank  was 
carrying  me  for  ten  thousand  dollars  with  no 
security  but  my  note.  The  president,  H.  D.  Col- 
som,  told  me  one  day  when  I  went  to  pay  my  in- 
terest that  he  wished  he  had  a  hundred  customers 
just  like  me,  because  he  had  no  trouble  in  collect- 
ing the  interest.  In  the  meantime  I  sent  for  my  son 
in  Kansas,  who  was  herding  sheep,  to  come  to 
California  and  work  for  me.  He  came  and,  with 
my  younger  son,  planted  my  two  hundred-acre 
farm  north  of  town  into  a  Muscat  vineyard.  While 
visiting  in  San  Francisco  during  the  summer  I 
received  a  letter  from  the  Republican  office  asking 
me  to  add  a  press-room  in  the  rear  of  the  Edgerly 
Block.  I  did  so  and  that  remained  there  successful- 
ly for  fourteen  years,  our  only  morning  paper  for 
Fresno.  There  came  a  time  when  it  was  necessary 
for  the  Government  to  move  the  Postoffice.  It  was 
then  in  a  building  on  the  corner  of  Fresno  and  J 
streets.  After  much  wrangling  between  the  citizens 
of  North  and  South  Fresno  I  succeeded  in  locating 
the  Postoffice  in  the  Edgerly  Block.  I  received 
numerous  letters  from  the  citizens  on  the  north 
side  of  town  asking  me  to  place  a  price  on  my 


80  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

building ;  that  is,  I  was  to  sell  out  the  southern 
side  to  them.  I  placed  a  price  on  my  building  at 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  I  was  to  receive 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  cash  and  was  to  take 
a  mortgage  of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars.  If 
they  secured  the  Postoffice  I  was  to  buy  my  build- 
ing back  and  give  them  the  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars  mortgage  back.  Thus  I  was  to  make  in 
my  transaction  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  but 
they  could  not  raise  the  money  -and  the  project 
fell  through,  so  the  Postoffice  was  located  in  my 
building  on  the  corner  of  J  and  Tulare  streets. 
The  Postoffice  took  two  stores.  I  was  to  donate 
the  rent  of  one  store  and  the  citizens  agreed  to 
pay  the  rent  of  the  other  store.  I  received  a  few 
dollars  from  the  people  for  the  rent  of  that  store 
and  the  rent  stopped,  excepting  Dr.  Eowell's.  I 
was  then  paying  for  the  rent  of  two  stores.  In  the 
meantime  the  Republican  Office  needed  more  room 
so  I  built  a  one-story  building  forty  feet  wide  and 
sixty  feet  long  in  front  of  the  press-room,  which 
led  out  to  J  Street,  as  editorial  and  composing- 
rooms,  which  they  occupied  until  they  built  a  five- 
story  brick  building  on  the  corner  of  Tulare  and  J 
streets,  opposite  the  New  Postoffice,  which  they 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  81 

are  occupying  to  this  day.  The  Postoffice  re- 
mained in  the  Edgerly  Block  about  fifteen  years, 
or  until  the  Government  built  a  public  Postoffice 
on  the  corner  of  Tulare  and  J  streets,  where  the 
Postoffice  now  is. 


82  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER   XII. 


THE  BOOM  BEOKE. 

After  the  boom  broke  and  my  notes  began  to  fall 
due,  I  could  not  pay  the  interest,  and  let  some  of 
my  property  go  to  pay  the  mortgages,  but  I  still 
held  on  to  my  two  hundred-acre  vineyard  and  the 
Edgerly  Block.  The  property  I  had  back  in  Beat- 
rice was  sold  at  a  smaller  price  than  I  paid  for  it, 
so  I  lost  money  in  that  speculation.  There  was  a 
mortgage  on  the  Edgerly  Block  for  thirty-five 
thousand  dollars  and  another  mortgage  on  the 
vineyard  for  ten  thousand  dollars.  I  saw  a  notice 
in  the  San  Francisco  paper  that  a  party  there  had 
property  that  they  would  exchange  for  city  prop- 
erty. I  wrote  to  this  party  asking  for  an  explana- 
tion, and  told  them  what  I  had.  He  came  down, 
and  after  looking  over  the  Edgerly  Block,  he  told 
me  that  he  had  an  eleven  hundred-acre  farm  at 
Youtville,  Napa  County,  Cal.,  that  he  would  trade 
for  the  Edgerly  Block.  On  this  ranch  there  was  a 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  83 

wine  vineyard  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  acres 
of  bearing  vines  and  a  brick  wine  cellar  with  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  gallons  of  oak  cooper- 
age in  it,  but  the  cooperage  was  empty.  This 
winery  was  used  to  make  and  store  wine  in.  It 
also  had  a  distillery  for  distilling  brandy;  it  also 
had  a  fine  dwelling-house  and  brick  barn  located 
near  the  railroad  station.  The  price  of  this  ranch 
was  a  hundred  and  ten  thousand  dollars.  The 
price  of  the  Edgerly  Block  was  a  hundred  and  five 
thousand.  The  ranch  was  free  of  all  incum- 
brances  and  I  put  a  mortgage  on  the  ranch  for 
twienty  thousand  dollars,  enough  to  pay  the  differ- 
ence in  trade  of  five  thousand  and  ten  thousand 
to  pay  the  bank  and  I  had  five  thousand  left  to 
run  the  ranches  with.  I  did  not  move  to  Napa 
County  that  year,  but  rented  the  ranch  and  wine 
cellar  and  lived  in  Fresno  with  my  family.  The 
next  year  I  went  to  Napa  County  with  my  wife 
and  run  the  ranch  myself.  I  soon  learned  that  I 
was  not  a  wine  man.  I  did  not  make  enough  that 
year  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  mortgages.  I  be- 
came alarmed  and  feared  J.  K.  Pryor  of  San 
Francisco,  who  held  the  mortgages,  would  fore- 
close on  me,  as  he  was  reported  to  be  a  hard  man. 


84  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

He  had  accumulated,  he  boasted,  two  million  dol- 
lars by  loaning  money  and  taking  advantages  of 
parties  who  could  not  pay  their  interest.  One  day 
while  he  was  visiting  us,  I  knew  him  to  be  a  wine 
man,  and  sat  before  him  at  dinner  coffee,  water 
and  a  bottle,  of  wine.  Instead  of  drinking  the 
water  he  took  up  his  glass  and  said,  "I  don't  know 
what  water  was  made  for  unless  it  was  to  wash  a 
man's  face  with."  He  drank  his  wine.  This 
shows  to  what  extent  a  man  may  go  to  depreciate 
his  appetite.  There  came  along  a  man  from 
Omaha,  Nebraska,  who  claimed  to  have  money  and 
securities  to  buy  the  farm.  I  negotiated  with  him 
a  few  days  before  the  interest  became  due.  I  sold 
him  the  farm  and  took  his  securities,  which  con- 
sisted of  mortgages  on  real  estate  back  in  Omaha 
and  Wyoming  oil  stock.  The  mortgages  took  the 
real  estate  and  no  companies  with  such  oil  stock 
were  ever  found.  They  proved  to  be  wild-cat  com- 
panies. I  took  the  stock,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  par  value,  for  which  I  paid 
twenty  cents  on  the  dollar,  which  amounted  to  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  The  whole  of  these  securities 
proved  to  be  worthless,  and  I  lost  in  the  trade  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  I  have  these  stocks  now.  Mr. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  85 

Pryor  now  owns  and  runs  the  ranch  which  cost 
him  about  thirty  thousand  dollars  which  he  ob- 
tained by  the  laxity  of  California  laws. 


86  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


RUNNING  ROOMING  HOUSES. 

During  my  last  year's  stay  on  the  ranch  in  Napa 
I  had  accumulated  two  thousand  dollars  in  gold 
which  I  took  with  me  and  went  to  Los  Angeles.  The 
first  thing  I  did  after  I  arrived  there  was  to  buy  a 
restaurant  for  which  I  paid  eight  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  in  gold.  The  man  who  sold  me  the 
restaurant  said  that  he  was  going  to  Seattle  to 
open  up  a  restaurant.  I  went  into  the  restaurant 
business,  but  soon  learned  that  this  man  from 
whom  I  bought,  instead  of  going  to  Seattle,  just 
went  around  the  corner  and  there  opened  up  a 
restaurant,  and  took  away  all  my  trade.  I  soon 
found  I  could  do  no  business  in  the  restaurant  so 
I  traded  it  for  a  rooming-house  on  Second  Street 
with  thirty-six  rooms.  It  was  nicely  furnished,  but 
so  far  out  that  it  failed  to  pay.  I  then  traded  that 
rooming-house  for  the  Portland  on  Spring  Street, 
Los  Angeles,  with  thirty-six  rooms,  the  rent  of 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  87 

which  was  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars 
per  month.  The  rent  being  so  great  that  it  was 
impossible  to  pay  expenses  and  make  any  money, 
I  then  sold  the  rooming-house  to  a  party  in  Pasa- 
dena, who  owned  forty  acres  of  washed  land.  The 
land  proved  to  be  worthless  and  I  lost  it  all.  Then 
I  bought  out  a  small  bakery  and  run  it  a  few 
weeks.  Mrs.  Tufts  was  with  me  and  did  the  bak- 
ing, but  the  business  was  too  small  to  make  any 
money.  I  took  the  fixtures  out  of  the  bakery  and 
sold  them  to  a  second-hand  man  and  shook  the 
dust  off  of  my  feet  from  Los  Angeles,  and  with 
Mrs.  Tufts  and  my  wife  went  back  to  Fresno  to 
live.  We  went  to  Mrs.  Tufts'  house  to  live  in 
Fresno.  After  a  few  w;eeks  I  went  to  Oakland 
where  I  found  a  cheap  lodging  house  of  fifty-nine 
rooms  located  on  Ninth  Street  between  Broadway 
and  Washington  streets.  I  traded  for  this  house 
and  gave  in  exchange  nineteen  lots  which  I  had 
saved  out  of  my  purchase  in  Youtville,  Napa 
County,  and  three  hundred  dollars  in  money.  I 
took  possession  of  the  house  and  soon  found  that 
I  had  purchased  a  house  of  ill-fame.  I  was  dis- 
gusted with  my  purchase.  I  soon  cleaned  the 
house  out  and  refitted  it  for  business.  The  house 


88  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

being  in  a  good  location  for  business  soon  filled 
up  with  respectable  people.  When  I  had  gotten 
the  house  in  good  condition  I  sent  for  my  wife 
and  Mrs.  Tufts.  I  put  Mrs.  Tufts  in  charge  as 
manager  and  we  went  on  and  made  some  money. 
After  we  had  run  the  house  for  about  three  years  I 
came  to  Fresno  to  look  after  the  boys  on  the  vine- 
yard. The  first  man  I  met  on  leaving  the  cars  at 
Fresno  was  Thomas  Dunn,  who  was  about  to  erect 
the  Dunn  Block  with  stores  below  and  rooming- 
house  above.  I  bought  it.  I  then  had  two  rooming- 
houses  ;  one  in  Oakland.  I  went  back  to  Oakland 
and  sold  out  my  house  there,  and  moved  to  Fresno 
and  took  possession  of  the  new  house  in  the  Dunn 
Block  at  Fresno.  I  named  the  new  rooming-house 
Hotel  Portland.  I  had  previously  bought  the 
furniture  in  Oakland  with  which  to  furnish  the 
new  house,  so  that  on  the  first  day  of  May,  1901, 
I  had  the  house  nicely  furnished  and  moved  into 
it.  I  then  leased  the  whole  building  for  three 
years  for  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars 
per  month,  and  I  paid  the  water  bill.  Mrs.  Tufts 
run  the  house  while  I  lived  in  rooms  in  the  house. 
Mrs.  Tufts  told  rue  when  I  came  to  California  that 
I  had  some  money  now,  and  that  I  should  do  some- 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  89 

thing  for  her  besides  paying  her  wages,  because 
she  would  be  old  by  and  by,  and  being  a  widow,' 
she  would  have  no  support.  She  had  then  worked 
for  me  eight  years,  and  had  saved  very  little 
money.  I  looked  around  and  found  ten  acres  of 
land  one-half  a  mile  east  of  the  Courthouse  and 
had  a  house  and  barn  on  it  and  was  planted  in 
grape  vines,  pear  trees  and  alfalfa.  I  bought  this 
land  and  paid  forty-five  hundred  dollars  for  it, 
paying  one-fourth  down  and  gave  a  mortgage  for 
the  balance.  I  told  her  that  when  she  should  pay 
for  the  land  she  should  have  a  deed  for  it.  ' '  But, ' ' 
said  she,  ' '  I  can  never  pay  for  the  land. ' '  I  said 
I  am  in  the  real  estate  business  and  I  will  survey 
the  land  into  lots  and  put  it  on  the  market  for  sale. 
It  made  eighty-four  lots.  The  boom  was  on  and  I 
soon  sold  the  twenty-four  lots  and  realized  money 
enough  to  pay  for  the  full  price  of  the  land,  com- 
missions and  interests.  Thus  she  had  sixty  lots 
left  clear  for  her  adventure,  and  I  took  sixty-three 
dollars  in  money  and  gave  it  to  her  as  this  was 
what  was  left  her  after  paying  for  the  land.  She 
lived  in  the  house  and  cultivated  the  land,  and 
made  enough  money  to  make  her  a  good  living  for 
a  year  or  so,  when  she  rented  the  place  and  went 


90  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

to  the  Edgerly  Block  and  took  charge  of  my  room- 
ing-house there  for  years.  When  I  sold  out  the 
Edgerly  Block  I  had  previously  given  her  a  lease 
of  all  the  rooming-house  for  the  small  sum  of 
seventy-five  dollars  per  month.  She  run  the  house 
for  two  years  and  then  sold  it  out  to  a  second-hand 
man  and  went  on  her  place  to  live  awhile.  In  Sep- 
temper  of  1901  while  she  was  running  the  Port- 
land at  Fresno  she  says  to  me  one  day  in  the 
afternoon,  "  I  'm  going  to  the  bath-tub. ' '  She  went 
and  closed  the  windows  and  transom  and  lit  the 
gas  to  heat  the  water  for  the  bath-tub.  In  about 
a  half  an  hour  a  gentleman  rung  the  bell  and  asked 
to  see  Mrs.  Tufts.  I  went  to  find  her  and  thought 
the  last  time  I  saw  her  she  was  going  to  take  a 
bath.  I  went  to  the  bath-room  door  and  found  the 
door  locked  and  rapped  on  the  door,  but  no 
answer.  I  rapped  again  and  still  no  answer.  I 
became  alarmed  and  rushed  to  the  store-room, 
took  a  step  ladder  and  looked  over  the  transom 
and  saw  Mrs.  Tufts  in  the  bath-tub  dead.  I  raised 
the  alarm,  and  with  my  son  Charley  who  was  vis- 
iting me  at  that  time,  burst  the  bath-room  door 
open,  took  her  out  of  the  bath  tub  in  a  nude  state, 
and  with  the  ladies  there  we  worked  over  her  for 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  91 

an  hour,  and  sent  for  the  doctor,  but  could  not 
revive  her  as  she  was  dead.  We  had  a  postmortem 
examination.  She  had  left  in  her  room  instruc- 
tions that  if  anything  happened  to  her  to  wire  her 
brother  who  lived  in  Topeka,  Kansas.  I  wired 
him  and  told  him  of  her  death  and  asked  for  in- 
structions. He  wired  back,  ' '  Hold  the  body  and  I 
will  come.'7  He  came  in  about  three  days.  We 
had  the  funeral  and  he  took  the  body  to  San  Fran- 
cisco and  had  it  cremated,  because  she  had  made 
her  will  that  she  should  be  cremated  for  she  feared 
all  her  life  that  she  would  be  buried  alive.  She 
made  her  will  giving  her  property  to  her  brothers 
and  sisters,  as  she  had  no  other  relations.  They 
lived  in  Kansas,  but  all  were  dead  at  the  time  of 
her  death  excepting  one  brother,  Mr.  Martin,  who 
never  went  back,  but  made  Fresno  his  home  where 
he  now  resides  to  this  day.  Thus  ended  the  life 
of  a  most  useful  woman. 


92  ,      The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


KOOMING-HOUSES   CONTINUED. 

I  continued  to  run  my  Hotel  Portland,  where 
Mrs.  Tufts  died,  and  built  it  up  to  a  high  state. 
I  had  numerous  housekeepers  until  I  found  one, 
a  Mrs.  Michael,  who  proved  to  be  a  very  success- 
ful manager  of  a  rooming-house.  I  kept  her  in 
my  service  about  a  year  and  a  half,  when  Mr. 
Martin,  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Tufts,  came  and  set- 
tled up  her  estate.  He  brought  his  wife  with  him 
from  Topeka,  Kansas,  and  they  stopped  with  us 
at  the  Hotel  Portland.  His  wife  was  pleased  with 
the  house  and  he  negotiated  with  me  to  buy  the 
house  and  the  furniture  in  the  rooms.  I  put  the 
price  on  it  at  three  thousand  dollars.  One  thou- 
sand was  to  be  cash  and  the  balance  to  be  paid  as 
the  house  earned  it,  about  one  hundred  dollars  per 
month  at  eight  per  cent  interest.  They  took  pos- 
session of  the  house  with  Mrs.  Michael  as  man- 
ager. They  soon  fell  out  and  she  left  him.  In 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  93 

the  meantime  I  went  to  the  corner  of  M  and  Kern 
streets  and  bought  four  lots  and  a  house  for  which 
I  paid  four  thousand  dollars.  I  built  the  Hotel 
Lincoln,  a  rooming-house  of  thirty-three  rooms, 
and  put  Mrs.  Micheal  in  there  as  manager.  She 
took  possession  February  1,  1903.  She  run  the 
house  until  September  following,  when  she  mar- 
ried a  man  by  the  name  of  Eohs  and  went  to  San 
Diego  to  live,  where  he  bought  a  rooming-house, 
which  they  are  running  to  this  day.  I  sold  the 
furniture  in  the  Hotel  Lincoln  to  Robert  Nutting, 
a  young  married  man,  renting  him  the  building  for 
one  hundred  dollars  per  month.  He  run  it  three 
years  and  sold  the  furniture  to  a  Mrs.  Steel,  who 
runs  it  to  this  day.  In  the  fall  of  1907  I  built  two 
flats  of  eleven  rooms  each,  besides  the  Hotel  Lin- 
coln, in  one  of  which  I  now  live. 


UNIVERSITY) 
/ 

sS 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  95 


CHAPTER   XV. 


GAVE  UP  BUSINESS. 

After  building  my  flats  I  had  decided  not  to 
build  any  more  houses.  I  went  to  Oakland  with 
my  wife  and  daughter  Effie,  where  I  had  been 
several  summers  to  spend  the  heated  term.  I 
was  in  poor  health,  and  instead  of  getting  better 
my  health  continued  to  decline.  When  the  time 
came  for  me  to  go  back  to  Fresno  I  decided  I 
must  go  to  work  or  die  soon  with  inactivity. 
After  arriving  in  Fresno  I  looked  around  for 
vacant  lots.  I  found  on  the  corner  of  0  and  Tulare 
streets  four  lots  which  were  vacant  and  for  sale. 
I  purchased  one  hundred  feet  square  on  the  corner 
of  0  and  Tulare  streets  for  six  thousand  and 
eight  hundred  dollars.  I  contracted  with  a  Mr. 
Sweet  to  build  me  three  houses,  an  apartment 
house  of  thirty-four  rooms  fronting  on  0  Street 
and  two  flats  fronting  on  Tulare  Street,  each  flat 
was  to  have  six  apartment  rooms  and  two  stores. 


VIEW  OF  MRS.  N.  E.  D.  WHEELER'S    HOME 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  97 

While  I  was  building  these  flats  there  came  a  man 
who  talked  to  me  about  renting  one  of  the  stores. 
After  much  talk  he  asked  me  if  I 'had  any  objec- 
tions to  putting  a  saloon  in  there.  I  said, ' '  Saloon 
and  I  am  a  Prohibitionist  from  away  back.  No 
saloon  will  ever  go  into  one  of  my  buildings. ' '  He 
turned  away  without  another  word  and  left  me.  I 
begun  to  think  that  he  or  some  one  else  would  buy 
the  lot  between  my  property  and  the  alley,  fifty 
feet,  and  put  up  a  saloon,  which  would  ruin  my 
property.  I  went  to  the  owner  of  the  lot  and  bought 
it,  paying  twenty-five  hundred  dollars  for  it.  The 
four  bare  lots  then  stood  me  nine  thousand  and 
three  hundred  dollars.  After  I  had  gotten  the 
houses  built  they  soon  filled  up  with  tenants. 
There  were  eighteen  suites  of  apartments  and  five 
stores  in  the  buildings.  When  I  first  commenced 
to  build  I  was  laying  my  foundation  for  my  apart- 
ment house,  which  I  called  the  Boston,  within  two 
feet  of  the  fence  next  to  Mrs.  Sherman's  house. 
Her  tenant,  Mrs.  Judge  Tinnen,  who  lives  there 
and  runs  a  boarding  house,  came  to  me  and  re- 
monstrated with  me  saying  that  I  should  put  my 
house  further  over  on  the  lots  as  I  was  ruining  the 
neighborhood.  I  told  her  that  the  land  was  too 


98  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

valuable  to  be  idle,  and  so  long  as  I  was  not  tres- 
passing I  should  continue  to  build.  She  said  she 
would  bring  my  case  before  the  city  authorities 
and  have  me  stopped.  About  that  time  her  land- 
lady, Mrs.  Sherman,  came  along  and  told  her  that 
my  house  would  be  an  advantage  to  her  house  as 
the  people  who  would  live  in  my  house  would  want 
to  take  their  meals  in  her  boarding-house,  which 
has  occurred  and  she  was  satisfied.  Having  the 
apartment  house  I  installed  Mrs.  Sanders  there 
to  manage  it  at  forty  dollars  per  month  and  a 
suite  of  front  rooms  on  the  first  floor.  She  man- 
ages it  so  successfully  that  she  has  a  job  with  me 
as  long  as  she  lives,  for  when  I  build  in  the  near 
future  the  four  brick  stores  fronting  on  Tulare 
street  and  the  alley  with  thirty-three  apartments 
above,  I  shall  give  her  the  management  of  those 
stores  and  apartments. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  99 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 


BUILT  FOUR  HOMES  ON  THE  Two  HUNDRED-ACRE 
VINEYARD  NORTH  or  TOWN  FOR  MY  CHILDREN. 

When  I  first  came  to  California  I  built  a  home 
for  myself  in  one  corner  of  the  two  hundred-acre 
vineyard.  After  living  there  one  year  my  oldest 
son,  who  came  from  Kansas  to  work  for  me,  de- 
cided he  wished  to  marry.  He  went  East  and  got 
married  in  Eureka  Springs,  Arkansas,  to  Miss 
Lorena  Carrie  Rice  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.  She  was 
born  in  Girard,  111.  He  brought  her  to  California. 
I  then  gave  him  my  home  and  moved  to  Fresno 
and  took  rooms  in  the  Edgerly  Block.  They  now 
have  one  daughter  and  one  son,  Pearl  Irene  and 
Lyman  Elmer,  both  graduates  of  the  Fresno  High 
School. 

During  this  time  my  youngest  son  Charles  D. 
Edgerly  lived  with  his  brother,  and  they  together 
run  the  ranch  and  vineyard.  Later  on  my  oldest 
daughter  Nellie  Effie  Delana,  who  was  living  in 


VIEW  OF  MRS.  L.  M.  R.  GARDNER'S  HOME 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  101 

Paducah,  Ky.,  came  to  California  and  to  my  house 
with  her  family.  She  married  a  man  by  the  name 
of  Eobert  E.  Wheeler,  born  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
She  first  met  him  at  our  hotel  in  Lincoln,  Neb., 
where  she  married  him.  Their  son  named  Clar- 
ence Grant  and  daughter  named  Daisy  May  con- 
stitute the  family. "  I  built  a  cottage  home  for 
them  of  six  rooms ;  also  a  barn  and  windmill  and 
tank  costing  twenty-six  hundred  dollars.  My 
youngest  daughter  Lillian  May,  nick-named  by  the 
family  Myrtie,  married  a  man  by  the  name  of 
J.  Sumner  Gardner,  born  in  Taylor,  Mo.  Lillian 
first  met  him  at  our  hotel  at  Lincoln,  Neb.  She 
married  him  at  the  Edgerly  Block  in  Fresno.  She 
has  only  one  child,  Estella  Grace,  a  girl  now  fif- 
teen years  old  attending  the  High  School.  I  built 
for  her  also  a  modern  cottage  of  seven  rooms  and 
barn  and  windmill  and  tank  which  cost  twenty- 
eight  hundred  dollars.  My  youngest  son  of  my 
four  children  lived  a  bachelor's  life  until  1904. 
He  then  married  a  girl  by  the  name  of  Annie 
Paulina  De  Craene,  born  in  Muscatine,  Iowa,  and 
married  in  Fresno.  They  now  have  two  small 
children,  both  boys ;  the  eldest,  Fred  Theodore,  the 
youngest,  Harry  Eugene.  They  live  in  a  cottage 


102 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


home  which  I  built  for  them  with  barn  and  wind- 
mill and  tank  costing  three  thousand  dollars. 
Thus  I  have  located  within  a  mile  of  each  other 
each  on  forty  acres  of  land,  which  constituted  my 
two  hundred  acres.  I  deeded  to  each  child  forty 
acres  of  vineyard  and  sold  to  the  two  boys  forty 
acres  more,  which  completes  the  two  hundred-acre 
farm. 


VIEW  OF    CHAllLIE  D.    EDGERLY'S   HOME 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  103 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


EXTKACTS. 

Extract  1:  • 

Extract  from  the  New  Hampton  Literary  In- 
stitution. Alumni.  Catalog,  of  1853-1903,  page 
47  of  the  Regular  Graduates  of  1856 : 

"Edgerly,  Asa  S. ;  son  of  David  and  Sarah 
(Sanborn)  Edgerly,  b.  New  Hampton,  N.  H.,  Mar. 
15,  1834.  Studied  at  Gilford  Academy.  Entered 
N.  H.  L.  I.  '52.  Member  of  Social  Fraternity. 
Completed  classical  course.  Residence,  New 
Hampton,  N.  H.  Taught  school  about  ten  years. 
Engaged  in  life  insurance,  mercantile  pursuits, 
farming  and  vineyard  industries.  He  entered 
Hillsdale  college,  but  owing  to  ill-health  remained 
but  two  years.  Married  Lydia  E.  Crowell  1859. 
Is  said  to  have  amassed  a  fortune.  Address, 
Fresno,  California,  Hotel  Portland. " 


104  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

Extract  2: 

Extract  from  the  History  of  California  and 
Biographical  Eecord  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley 
of  California.  An  Historical  Story  of  the  State's 
Marvelous  Growth  from  its  Earliest  Settlement 
to  the  Present  Time.  By  Prof.  J.  M.  Guinn,  A.  M. 
in  the  year  of  1905.  Page  1396  of  the  Historical 
and  Biographical  Eecord : 

"A  S.  Edgerly,  a  resident  of  California  and 
Fresno  County  since  1887.  A.  S.  Edgerly  has 
been  actively  engaged  in  the  upbuilding  of  the 
City  of  Fresno  since  that  date.  He  was  born  in 
New  Hampton,  N.  H.,  March  15,  1834;  a  son  of 
David  and  Sarah  (Sanborn)  Edgerly,  both  of 
whom  were  born  in  Meredith,  N.  H.,  and  there 
died  at  advanced  ages.  The  grandfather,  Samuel 
Edgerly,  was  born  in  the  New  England  States  of 
English  parentage.  On  the  maternal  side  the 
grandfather,  Asa  L.  Sanborn,  was  of  English 
ancestry,  and  was  a  farmer.  Edwin  and  Orrin 
Edgerly  were  soldiers  in  the  civil  war,  the  former 
being  wounded  in  an  engagement.  The  sixth  in 
order  of  birth  of  twelve  children,  A.  S.  Edgerly, 
was  reared  on  a  farm  in  New  Hampshire  at  New 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  105 

Hampton  and  Meredith,  until  nineteen  years  of 
age,  being  given  such  advantages  as  the  common 
schools  afforded.  He  entered  New  Hampton  In- 
stitution, then  Hillsdale  College,  where  he  re- 
mained but  one  year,  when  on  account  of  failing 
health  he  was  obliged  to  leave.  He  engaged  in 
teaching  near  Cuthbert,  Ga.,  in  1859,  as  proprietor 
of  Springvale  Institute,  and  remained  at  the  head 
of  that  institution  until  1866,  at  which  time  he 
went  to  Sandwich,  Mass.,  as  principal  of  the  High 
School,  and  held  that  position  four  years.  En- 
gaging then  in  the  life  insurance  business,  he  was 
made  special  State  agent  for  Vermont  of  the  Con- 
tinental Life  Insurance  Company  of  New  York. 
In  1873  he  removed  to  Otoe  County,  Neb.,  and  at 
Palmyra  purchased  six  hundred  and  forty  acres 
of  railroad  land  and  engaged  in  the  stock  business 
until  1875,  when  he  removed  to  Lincoln  and  went 
into  the  Hardware  business  under  the  firm  name 
of  Parker  and  Edgerly,  which  continued  four 
years.  The  partnership  being  dissolved,  Mr. 
Edgerly  embarked  in  the  real  estate  business, 
buying,  improving  and  selling  residence  and  busi- 
ness properties  until  1887.  Disposing  of  his  in- 
terests, he  located  in  California  and  at  once  set- 
tled in  Fresno,  where  he  engaged  in  the  real 


106  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

estate  business.  Having  a  firm  belief  in  the  future 
of  that  city,  in  1889  he  manufactured  the  brick  and 
erected  the  Edgerly  Block  on  the  corner  of  Tulare 
and  J  streets.  In  1891  he  built  an  addition,  the 
whole  being  150  x  70  feet  with  an  L  40  x  80  feet 
three  stories  high.  He  also  improved  considerable 
residence  and  other  business  property  in  the  city. 
Among  his  other  enterprises  worthy  of  special 
mention  is  the  laying  out  of  the  Hartley  Addition 
of  ten  acres  into  lots,  which  was  soon  disposed  of 
with  William  Harvey  and  W.  E.  Thomas.  He  laid 
out  the  Belmont  Addition  of  eighty  acres,  which 
was  sold  off  in  two  months  in  city  lots,  with  the 
exception  of  three  lots  which  had  been  reserved. 
He  now  owns  two  hundred  acres  one  mile  north  of 
Fresno  on  Blackstone  Avenue,  which  is  devoted 
to  a  vineyard  and  also  has  an  orchard  and  vine- 
yard of  forty  acres  near  Fowler.  At  West  Sand- 
wich (now  Sagamore),  Mass.,  August  6,  1859,  Mr. 
Edgerly  was  united  in  marriage  with  Lydia  E. 
Crowell,  who  was  a  native  of  that  place,  and  a 
daughter  of  Paul  and  Lydia  (Ellis)  Crowell,  both 
of  Massachusetts,  the  former  of  Dennis  and  the 
latter  of  Plymouth.  Of  their  six  children  three 
are  now  living.  Mrs.  Edgerly  being  the  second 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  107 

in  order  of  birth.  To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edgerly  six 
children  have  been  born,  namely,  Willie  Alberto, 
a  vineyardist ;  Nellie  Effie  D.,  wife  of  E.  E.  Wheel- 
er of  Fresno ;  Lillian  May  Rebecca,  the  wife  of 
J.  S.  Gardner  of  Fresno ;  Charles  D.,  also  a  vine- 
yardist; Fred  Lincoln  and  Nellie  Elsie  died  in 
infancy.  Through  the  influence  of  Mr.  Edgerly 
the  location  of  the  Postoffice  was  secured  for  the 
corner  of  Tulare  and  J  streets,  by  giving  the  lower 
floor  space,  50  x  70  feet,  to  the  Government  for  use 
for  a  term  of  years  free  of  charge  with  the  under- 
standing that  the  property-holders  adjacent  to 
that  corner  would  pay  the  rent  of  one-half  the 
space.  This  arrangement  was  entered  into  and 
was  carried  out  for  only  a  few  months,  when  the 
property  owners  repudiated  their  part  of  the 
agreement  with  the  exception  of  Dr.  Chester 
Rowell,  who  still  fulfills  his  part.  In  this  way  Mr. 
Edgerly  practically  gave  the  use  of  his  building 
gratis  from  1891  until  he  sold  it  in  1895.  In  poli- 
tics a  Republican,  Mr.  Edgerly  has  always  had  the 
interest  of  the  party  at  heart,  though  never  an 
aspirant  for  official  recognition.  As  one  of  the 
enterprising  citizens  of  Fresno  County,  he  has 
ever  been  a  supporter  of  measures  that  have  had 


HOUSES  ON   KERN  STREET,  FRESNO 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  109 

for  their  object  the  advancement  of  the  people 
and  the  prestige  of  Fresno  in  the  San  Joaquin  Val- 
ley. His  success  in  life  has  been  of  his  own  mak- 
ing, and  in  the  annals  of  his  adopted  State  his 
name  is  entitled  to  enrollment  among  the  pro- 
gressive builders  of  a  commonwealth. ' ' 


HOUSES  ON  O  AND  TULARE  STREETS,  FRESNO 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  111 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


MY  OWN  AKCHITECT. 

Not  having  been  taught  drawing  in  early  life, 
I  was  ill-prepared  for  a  draughtsman,  but  when 
I  had  the  first  house  to  build  I  draughted  it,  and 
after  I  had  built  it,  there  came  a  gentleman  look- 
ing up  at  the  house.  He  said, ' '  That's  a  fine  house, 
you  must  have  had  a  good  architect. "  I  told  him 
I  was  my  own  architect  and  drew  the  plans  myself. 
He  said,  "Well,  you'll  do;  it  compares  well  with 
the  works  of  many  fine  architects. "  So  when  I 
had  other  houses  to  build  I  drew  all  the  plans  and 
made  the  specifications  myself,  and  thus  I  saved 
for  myself  many  a  dollar  which  I  should  have 
given  out  had  I  not  have  been  competent  to  do 
this  work.  All  who  have  occupied  my  rooming- 
houses,  apartment  houses  and  stores  were  well 
pleased  with  the  way  they  were  built. 


112  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


MY  HABITS  OF  LIFE. 

Born  of  religious  parents  I  was  taught  from 
boyhood  to  attend  Sabbath  School  and  church  on 
Sunday,  where  I  learned  to  read  the  Bible  and 
practice  its  lessons.  I  do  not  remember  the  time 
when  I  was  so-called  converted,  but  grew  up  to  be  a 
moral  upright  young  man,  so  much  so  that  my 

word  was  considered  by  others  as  good  as  my 
/ 

bond.  I  was  taught,  and  it  was  adherent  in  my 
life,  never  to  drink  or  chew  or  smoke,  and  when  I 
have  seen  young  men  chewing  tobacco  and  smok- 
ing cigarettes,  they  have  fallen  far  below  my 
standard  of  morality.  I  have  said  I  have  no  time 
nor  money  to  spend  in  such  foolish  use,  and  if  I 
had  been  a  tobacco  chewer  and  smoker  my  wife 
never  would  have  married  me,  because  she  hates 
even  the  smell  of  tobacco,  therefore  being  a  to- 
bacco abstainer  I  have  saved  thousand  of  dollars 
which  would  have  gone  up  in  smoke.  It  is  true 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  113 

that  sometimes  when  I  wanted  to  make  a  trade 
with  a  gentleman  who  smoked,  that  I  have  de- 
plored the  fact  that  I  did  not  smoke,  because  had  I 
smoked  I  could  have  gotten  nearer  him  and  made 
a  better  trade.  Then  again  it  is  nice  to  sit  with  a 
friend  and  smoke  socially,  but  I  have  never  re- 
gretted notwithstanding  all  these  things  that  I 
did  not  smoke,  and  my  life  has  been  better  and  my 
breath  has  been  sweeter,  because  I  did  not  impreg- 
nate it  with  the  fumes  of  the  nasty  weed.  I  claim 
that  my  success  with  being  a  favorite  with  the 
young  ladies  is  because  I  did  not  chew  or  smoke, 
and  that  was  one  of  the  reasons  I  was  successful 
in  life.  As  to  drinking  spiritual  liquors  I  had  no 
desire,  never  having  formed  the  taste.  I  cannot 
tell  one  kind  of  liquor  from  another,  and  when  I 
have  seen  young  men  who  work  by  the  week,  on 
Saturday  night  receive  their  check  for  their 
services,  they  go  straight  to  the  saloon,  and  there 
take  a  drink.  No  sooner  have  they  had  one  drink, 
then  that  begets  a  desire  for  another,  and  they 
continue  to  drink  and  treat  their  fellows  until 
they  have  not  a  dollar  left.  Then  they  go  broke 
for  another  week  until  they  get  their  pay  again. 


114  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

Thus  they  go  on  from  year  to  year  until  they  be- 
come a  drunken  wreck,  and  in  old  age  they  and 
their  families  become  a  subject  fit  for  the  poor- 
house,  thus  the  taxpayers  have  to  support  multi- 
tudes of  such  men,  and  the  saloon-keeper  becomes 
wealthy  by  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  to 
these  men  who  have  become  beggars  and  poverty- 
stricken  with  their  families.  The  saloon-keeper 
says  he  makes  the  town,  for  people  would  not 
come  to  town  if  they  could  not  get  liquor  to  drink, 
but  if  the  saloons  were  removed  the  town  would 
be  far  better  without  them.  They  say  they  occupy 
the  finest  buildings,  generally  corner  stores,  in  the 
cities,  and  if  they  are  closed  up  their  stores  will  be 
vacant  and  the  license  they  pay  will  have  to  come 
out  of  the  taxpayers  by  direct  taxation.  But  the 
saloon-keeper  forgets  his  store  will  be  occupied 
by  good  business  men  who  will  open  up  a  legiti- 
mate business,  and  now  the  very  m(oney  that  goes 
to  support  the  saloons  will  be  paid  to  the  families 
and  will  go  to  support  these  stores,  and  thus  we 
shall  have  a  city  without  saloons  and  made  up  of 
good  business  men.  While  the  saloon-keeper  is 
selling  liquor  to  these  men,  he  rolls  in  his  wealth 
while  the  man  who  buys  the  liquor  with  his  family 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  115 

rolls  in  rags.  And  thus  if  the  nation  should  do 
away  with  all  the 'saloons  we  should  have  a  nation 
of  purity,  good  morals  and  substantial  citizens, 
while  we  are  now  supporting  orphan  asylums  and 
old  women's  and  old  men's  homes,  if  traced  to  the 
bottom  will  be  found  out  because  of  the  saloon. 
Go  to  our  penitentiary  and  ask  the  men  what 
brought  them  there,  they  will  tell  you  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  that  they  owe  their  downfall  to  saloons. 
Go  to  the  justice  and  police  courts  and  the  judges 
will  tell  you  that  nine-tenths  of  their  cases  have 
been  caused  by  the  saloons,  and  the  vast  amount 
of  money  that  was  used  in  persecuting  drunks  is 
obtained  from  the  license  of  the  saloon-keeper.  It  is 
true  that  the  dry  laws  of  California  permits  drug- 
gists and  other  parties  to  sell  liquor  by  the  bottle, 
but  it  can't  be  drunk  on  the  premises.  The  man 
who  buys  the  liquor  by  the  bottle  will  buy  only  one 
bottle  and  take  it  home  and  drink  it.  He  also  will 
take  home  the  balance  of  the  money  which  is  left 
after  buying  the  bottle  of  liquor  to  his  family  who 
use  it  in  buying  supplies  for  the  family,  and  the 
family  will  live  in  peace  and  plenty,  and  thus  the 
stores  left  vacant  by  the  saloon-keepers  will  be 


116  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

supported,  and  we  shall  have  a  nation-  of  saloon- 
keepers reformed  and  become  good  business  men, 
where  as  if  they  continue  to  sell  liquor  they  do  it 
for  the  big  money  that  is  in  it. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  117 


CHAPTEK   XX. 


THE  CHURCH. 

Although  I  was  raised  in  the  church  until  I  came 
to  mature  years,  when  I  left  it,  I  do  not  discard 
the  church.  They  are  noble  institutions,  filled 
with  good  meaning  people.  They  teach  the  young 
in  the  Sabbath  School  and  church  many  things 
that  form  the  character  of  a  good  citizen  without 
which  many  of  them  would  grow  up  and  become 
thriftless  and  demoralized  citizens.  It  is  true 
that  the  clergy  are  not  all  honest  men.  Some  fol- 
low the  business  of  preaching  because  they  were 
educated  to  it  and  some  for  their  bread  and  butter. 
Without  the  churches  the  world  would  sink  into  a 
natural  despond,  but  owing  to  the  aristocratic 
principle  of  our  city  churches,  they  drive  many 
a  poor  man  from  their  doors,  so  that  the  poor 
man's  church  is  the  majority  of  the  human  race. 
The  Salvation  Army  has  picked  up  this  class  from 
which  the  church  would  ask  to  be  excused. 


118  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER  XXL 


LESSONS  TO  POOR  YOUNG  MEN. 

The  world  is  full  of  poor  men  who  draw  their 
substance  from  the  swteat  of  their  brow.  Poor, 
because  of  their  unfaithfulness,  they  work  harder 
to  get  rid  of  work  than  they  work  for  their  em- 
ployer. While  building  the  Edgerly  Block  I  had 
a  man  in  my  emiploy,  and  once  when  I  paid  him 
on  Saturday  evening  I  ask  liim  what  he  was  going 
to  do  with  the  money  I  had  just  paid  him.  He 
said  he  did  not  know,  he  had  not  thought  yet.  The 
fact  was  brought  out  that  when  Monday  morning 
came  he  had  spent  every  dollar.  Also  while  build- 
ing that  building  I  had  another  man  in  my  employ 
who  was  so  selfish  that  when  the  whistle  blowed 
for  dinner  and  he  was  driving  a  nail  he  dropped 
his  hammer  and  left  the  nail  partly  driven  in.  I 
can  show  you  to  this  day  that  nail.  This  man  was 
always  poor,  and  a  large  portion  of  his  time  was 
employed  with  hunting  for  a  job.  The  fact  was 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  119 

contractors  who  employed  him  soon  learned  of  his 
unfaithfulness  and  discharged  him.  I  also  had 
another  man  in  m!y  employ  whose  faithfulness  was 
proverbial.  He  never  thought  of  his  own  interest, 
but  worked  faithfully  for  his  employer.  So  much 
so  that  he  soon  ceased  to  be  employed  and  became 
a  contractor.  This  is  a  fine  type  of  the  world's 
laboring  men,  most  of  them  work  for  themselves 
instead  of  their  employer,  and  are  constantly  out 
of  business  while  others  who  work  for  their  em- 
ployers soon  rise  to  be  employers  themselves. 


120  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


MY  VIEWS  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE. 

That  there  is  a  Spirit  World  there  is  no  doubt. 
It  is  not  a  place  but  a  state  of  existence.  It  is  every- 
where, and  when  we  have  lived  the  allotted  time 
of  Earth  life  we  pass  from  the  Earth  life  to  the 
Spirit  life.  We  lay  aside  the  Earth  life  as  we  lay 
aside  a  pair  of  old  shoes  and  enter  upon  the  Spirit 
life  as  a  child.  We  are  placed  under  teachers  who 
teach  us  the  things  of  the  Spirit  world,  as  we  were 
taught  the  things  of  the  Earth  life.  We  commence 
to  develop  and  grow,  until  we  have  advanced  to  a 
state  which  we  will  call  Eternity  in  Spirit  life. 
Then  our  teachers  leave  us  and  each  one  goes  on 
by  themselves  and  learn  the  beauties  and  the  love 
that  belongs  to  that  life.  We  continue  to  develop 
forever.  After  we  have  passed  out  of  Earth  life 
we  soon  forget  the  things  of  Earth  life.  Our  whole 
thought  is  upon  the  beauties  and  the  love  of  the 
Spirit  life.  There  are  degrees  of  attainment  in 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  121 

the  Spirit  life  just  as  there  are  in  Earth  life.  In 
Earth  life,  as  the  scholar  and  the  scientist  is  de- 
veloped, he  ceases  to  take  cognizance  of  the  things 
of  the  past.  So  in  Spirit  life  when  he  has  devel- 
oped to  that  degree  that  he  no  longer  needs  a 
teacher,  bnt  is  a  teacher  himself,  he  becomes  as  it 
were  a  Scientific  Spiritual  man  and  helps  to  lead 
the  Scientific  Spirit  World  on  and  on  forever.  In 
his  career  in  Spirit  life  he  never  sees  Jesus  be- 
cause Jesus  was  a  good  man  and  entered  Spirit 
life  as  a  ripe  scholar,  but  still  he  progresses  so 
fast  in  beauty  and  goodness  that  he  is  never  over- 
taken. Neither  will  man  ever  see  God  in  Spirit  life, 
because  He  the  greater  of  all  greatness  and  man 
can  never  be  developed  to  the  extent  of  coming  into 
his  presence.  "We  pass  out  of  Earth  life  just  as 
we  have  lived  in  Earth  life.  The  good  will  enter 
upon  Spiritual  life  and  begin  to  grow  and  develop 
into  Spiritual  beauties.  The  moderated  good  in 
Earth  life  will  pass  into  Spirit  life  and  remain  in 
Status  Quo  forever;  they  neither  progress  nor 
go  backward.  The  criminal  in  Earth  life  will  pass 
into  Spirit  life  in  a  state  of  darkness.  He  never 
wiill  develop,  but  will  remain  in  this  state  of  dark- 
ness forever,  and  this  is  hell  which  none  but 'the 


122  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

evil  will  ever  experience.  Thus  we  see  that  the  be- 
ginning of  goodness  and  greatness  and  purity 
and  love  have  their  foundation  made  in  Earth  life. 
Every  one  in  Spirit  life  lives  by  himself,  each  out- 
stripping the  other  as  his  ability  permits  him  to 
do,  so  we  work  as  hard  in  Spirit  life  to  advance 
as  we  do  in  Earth  life. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  123 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


THERE  Is  A  GOD. 

That  there  is  a  God  'tis  true,  for  we  see  the 
work  of  his  hands  in  everything  around  us.  As  I 
exist,  God  exists.  The  world  exists,  therefore  God 
exists,  and  everything  within  it.  Had  there  not 
been  a  God  a  first  great  cause,  nothing  could  have 
existed.  We  see  God  in  the  mountains,  in  the 
rivers,  in  the  fields,  in  the  plants,  in  the  flowers, 
in  the  wind  with  the  great  storm  King  that  levels 
everything  before  it.  Take  God  or  the  first  cause 
out  of  the  world  and  we  shall  be  left  in  total  dark- 
ness and  clioas.  That  God  has  an  influence  on 
each  is  also  a  matter  of  fact.  Who  cannot  say  that 
at  times  he  has  been  strangely  led.  Man  has  been 
led  strangely  at  times  to  do  things  for  which  he 
cannot  account,  only  because  there  is  a  God.  God 
is  greater  than  all  his  works,  as  a  maker  greater 
than  that  which  is  made.  He  is  in  our  sleeping 
and  waking  moments.  He  directs  our  thoughts 


124  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

on  all  Earthly  and  Spiritual  interests.  Can  we 
discard  this  great  God!  When  He  robs  us  of  our 
children,  husband  and  wife  it  is  a  warning  to  us  to 
live  a  better  life.  He  is  not  a  God  of  vengence, 
but  a  God  of  supreme  love.  He  wipes  away  the 
tears  from  the  eyes  of  the  child  grieving  for  the 
death  of  a  mother,  yet  He  sometimes  chastises  us 
for  wrong-doings,  every  thing  seems  to  turn 
against  us  as  we  grope  our  way  in  dispondency, 
but  after  awhile  the  clouds  will  break  and  the  sun 
will  shine  through  our  tears,  and  we  will  learn  to 
love  God  more  for  his  chastisement.  Therefore 
we  wt)uld  say  to  all,  remember  God  and  his  chas- 
tisements as  well  as  His  love  and  goodness  to  us. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  125 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


SUNDAY  TRADING. 

Once  when  I  was  a  boy  eight  years  old  I,  with 
my  brother  William,  was  sent  on  Sunday  to  Sun- 
day School,  two  miles  away.  While  on  the  way 
home  we  fell  in  with  two  boys  by  the  name  of 
Carter,  who  were  three  or  four  years  older  than 
we  wtere.  I  had  a  nice  boy's  pocket  knife  which 
Levi  Carter  wanted.  He  offered  me  various 
trinkets  for  it,  all  of  which  I  declined.  Finally  he 
offered  me  two  cents.  Now  two  cents  was  a  good 
deal  of  money  to  me  in  those  days  and  I  took  the 
two  cents  and  gave  him  the  knife.  We  went  on  a 
few  paces  when  I  saw  something  I  wanted  to  cut, 
then  I  wanted  my  knife  back.  I  offered  him  my 
two  cents.  He  refused  to  trade  back,  then  I  began 
to  cry.  About  that  time  a  neighbor  came  along 
and  asked  me  what  I  Was  crying  about.  He  passed 
on  and  told  my  father  that  the  Carter  boys  and  I 
were  quarreling  and  that  I  was  crying.  Father 


126  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

asked  me  about  it  that  night  and  I  told  him  all 
about  the  knife  trade.  He  went  to  Mr.  Carter, 
father  of  the  boy  I  had  sold  the  knife  to,  and  he 
being  a  good  man  and  deacon  in  the  church  said, 
"The  boys  have  .been  trading  on  Sunday,  have 
they."  He  called  his  son  Levi  and  came  to  my 
father's  and  they  came  to  me  and  he  asked  me  for 
the  two  cents  and  I  gave  it  to  him.  He  handed 
the  knife  back  to  me  and  said,  "You  must  not 
trade  on  the  Sabbath  day."  I  mention  this  cir- 
cumstances to  show  how  strict  the  children  were 
raised  in  my  day  to  keep  the  Sabbath  holy. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  127 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


CUTTING  WOOD. 

Once  when  a  boy  about  ten  years  old  my  father 
engaged  to  cut  a  lot  of  cord  wood  for  Mr.  Emerson 
who  lived  about  one  mile  away.  It  was  necessary 
for  my  brother  William  and  I  to  carry  luncheon 
to  him  at  noon.  Father  was  proverbial  for  having 
long  arms  with  great  strength.  He  could  cut  and 
pile  up  three  cords  of  wood  in  a  day  for  which  he 
received  fifty  cents  per  cord.  The  snow  was  deep 
and  we  had  to  wade  through  it  to  find  our  father, 
who  was  in  the  woods.  The  shortness  of  money 
made  it  necessary  for  my  father  to  cut  this  wood 
to  help  out  in  his  expenses.  I  remfember  on  one 
occasion  while  William  and  I  were  passing 
through  a  pair  of  bars  to  get  to  my  father  we 
dropped  the  bottle  in  which  was  a  quart  of  cider 
which  we  were  taking  for  father's  luncheon  and 
the  cider  all  run  out.  We  deplored  this  accident 
very  much,  as  father  was  very  fond  of  cider  with 


128  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

his  meals.  When  we  arrived  at  the  place  where 
father  was  cutting  wood  we  told  him  of  our  mis- 
hap and  all  he  said  was,  "  Could  you  not  have 
saved  some  of  the  cider  ? ' '  He  ate  his  dinner  with- 
out his  cider  and  relished  it  very  much.  I  mention 
this  circumstance  to  show  that  while  my  father 
was  not  a  drinking  man  he  loved  his  cider.  After 
this  incident  father  found  out  he  could  do  with- 
out his  cider.  He  went  home  and  cut  the  taps  off 
of  every  barrel  of  cider  in  his  cellar,  and  forever 
swore  off  from  drinking  any  more  cider.  Hence 
he  was  afterwards  known  as  a  Prohibitionist. 
Had  father  been  a  drinking  man  his  children 
would  never  have  been  respectably  clothed  and 
fed.  His  sons  all  grew  to  mature  years  Prohibi- 
tionist and  each  made  an  honest  name  for  himself. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  129 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


A  WOKD  TO  YOUNG  MEN  AND  WOMEN  ABOUT  TO 
MARRY. 

Having  arrived  at  mature  years  no  doubt 
thoughts  of  marriage  have  entered  your  minds. 
But  have  you  ever  thought  of  the  great  responsi- 
bility attending  marriage  ?  Have  you  ever  thought 
of  the  effect  your  offspring  would  have  upon  the 
Government  and  world  at  large?  Have  you  ever 
thought  that  perhaps  they  would  be  criminals  and 
tend  to  degradation  instead  of  honor  and  trust? 
The  world  is  what  you  and  your  offspring  have 
helped  to  make  it.  Therefore  in  those  candid  mo- 
ments when  you  have  been  weighing  the  matri- 
monial journey  with  the  young  gentleman  through 
life  which  or  who  shall  you  marry.  Have  you 
thought  of  these  things  1  Or  have  y.ou  only  thought 
of  the  good  time  marrying  brings  and  spent  your 
thoughts  only  of  the  honeymoon.  This  latter  is 
the  cause  of  so  many  divorces  at  the  present  day. 


130  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

Many  people  meet  and  think  they  are  mated  at 
first  sight,  and  decide  to  marry,  when  after  the 
honeymoon  has  passed  they  tire  of  each  other. 
They  soon  seek  and  obtain  a  divorce,  and  thus  too 
many  souls  are  wrecked  on  the  bark  of  life,  and 
their  work  has  gone  on  until  we  have  a  nation  of 
divorced  people  with  babies  crying  for  father  and 
mother.  The  great  object  of  matrimony  is  to  peo- 
ple and  replenish  the  world.  How  it  has  suc- 
ceeded our  penitentiaries  and  criminal  calendars, 
and  jails  tell  us.  Let  those  of  similar  education 
seek  each  other  socially,  and  experience  will  teach 
us  that  only  such  should  marry.  It  will  bring 
harmony  and  happiness,  otherwise  there  will  be 
wrangling  and  discontent.  A  man  is  not  made 
better  by  a  divorce.  Thus  we  would  say  to  every 
one  thinking  of  marrying,  "Do  not  weigh  the 
subject  lightly,  but  bring  all  your  wisdom  to  bear 
upon  the  subject,  and  when  you  do  decide  to 
marry,  decide  for  life,  and  let  nothing  prevent  you 
from  making  an  honorable  upright  matrimonial 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  131 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


MY  WIFE. 

That  I  have  a  good  wife  follows  from  the  fact 
that  without  her  my  success  in  life  would  have 
been  far  less.  While  I  have  been  at  the  helm  work- 
ing for  our  upbuildings  in  life,  she  has  guided  my 
feet  into  the  successful  paths.  At  times  when  I 
have  been  out  of  business  groping  in  darkness 
as  it  were,  she  has  held  out  a  helping  hand  by 
taking  in  boarders,  and  thus  assisting  me  on  my 
feet  again.  When  I  had  almost  lost  hope  of  suc- 
cess in  life  again  she  would  encourage  me  onward, 
and  instead,  as  in  many  cases,  I  have  been  led  to 
abstain  from  drink,  the  cause  of  so  much  misery 
and  so  many  downfalls.  While  I  have  never  been 
inclined  to  drink,  yet  there  is  no  telling  what  I 
might  have  done  had  not  she  spoke  comforting 
and  encouraging  words  to  me.  By  the  help  of  God 
or  some  unforeseen  power  we  have  been  blessed 
with  six  children,  four  of  whom  have  lived  to 


132  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

mjanhood  and  womanhood,  and  now  take  their 
places  in  life  as  good  and  upright  citizens.  Had 
I  yielded  to  my  misfortune  when  it  had  overtaken 
me,  I  might  have  been  led  to  desert  my  family. 
Then  there  would  have  followed  destitution  and 
possibly  divorce,  but  by  the  encouraging  spirit  of 
my  wife  we  have  pushed  forward  in  this  world 
until  We  have  reached  the  goal  of  success. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  133 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 


GOLDEN  WEDDING. 

Little  did  I  think  when  I  journeyed  three  thou- 
sand miles  to  marry  my  wife  on  August  6,  1859, 
that  at  the  end  of  fifty  years  of  married  life  I 
should  celebrate  our  golden  wedding.  But  now  at 
the  age  of  seventy-five  years  I  find  after  having 
made  four  fortunes  and  lost  three,  I  have  the 
fourth  one  to  comfort  me  in  my  old  age,  and  noth- 
ing to  do  but  enjoy  our  golden  wedding  honey- 
moon. 


134  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 


Go  TO  OAKLAND. 

On  account  of  the  summer  heat  in  Fresno  during 
raisin-drying  time,  my  wife  and  I  and  my  daughter 
Effie  have  made  it  a  practice  to  spend  that  season 
of  the  year  in  Oakland,  Cal.  Oakland  is  a  nice 
city  across  the  bay  from  San  Francisco,  where  the 
climate  is  ideal.  It  is  never  too  hot  nor  too  cold. 
Oakland  is  to  San  Francisco  what  Brooklyn  is  to 
New  York  City,  a  place  of  residence.  Business  is 
done  in  San  Francisco,  and  the  people  live  in  Oak- 
land, so  much  that  the  people  speak  of  Oakland 
as  the  bedroom  of  San  Francisco.  Communication 
is  made  by  cars  and  steamers  every  ten  minutes 
of  the  day,  thus  the  travel  between  the  two  cities 
is  very  great,  the  revenue  of  which  is  said  to  be 
equal  to  the  revenue  of  the  whole  of  the  S.  P. 
System  in  California.  The  heated  term  having 
passed  we  return  to  Fresno,  where  we  enjoy  the 
best  climate  on  the  Globe. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Roy  135 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


CATARACT. 

About  the  year  1890  my  left  eye  began  to  show 
signs  of  defections  and  soon  developed  into  a  cat- 
aract, and  finally,  in  1896,  the  vision  had  become 
completely  obscured.  I  consulted  many  oculists 
in  regard  to  it,  and  it  was  finally  decided  that  I 
should  have  an  operation  performed  to  remove 
the  cataract.  When  the  eye  had  become  totally 
blind  I  discovered  an  affection  of  the  right  eye  in 
the  same  manner,  which  seemed  to  be  forming 
into  a  cataract  also.  I  discovered  that  before  I 
had  quite  gotten  over  the  blindness  of  my  left  eye, 
I  had  to  have  an  operation  performed  on  my  right 
eye.  Total  blindness  stared  me  in  the  face.  I  had 
the  operation  performed  on  the  left  eye,  which 
was  partially  successful.  I  had  then  to  go  through 
the  rest  of  my  life  with  my  right  eye  totally  blind 
and  half  of  the  usual  sight  of  my  left  eye.  It  is 
remarkable  that  three  of  the  twelve  children  in 


136  The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy 

my  father's  family  had  cataracts  on  their  eyes, 
and  all  would  have  become  totally  blind  but  from 
the  partial  sight  preserved  from  removal  of  the 
cataracts.  But  with  the  aid  of  my  cane  I  manage 
to  do  the  business  of  an  average  man.  Why  these 
cataracts  should  have  appeared  among  us  is  a 
mystery,  traced  from  away  back. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  137 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


DEEDED  ALL  MY  PROPEKTY  TO  MY  WIFE  AND 
CHILDREN. 

In  May,  1905,  believing  I  was  about  to  die,  I 
deeded  all  my  property  to  my  wife  and  children. 
I  did  this  to  save  the  expense  of  settling  two 
estates.  My  wife  had  an  estate,  and  I  thought 
that  by  putting  my  property  in  her  name  that  her 
estate  could  be  settled  at  the  same  expense  with 
mine.  I  gave  to  my  wife  my  Fowler  vineyard 
and  my  real  estate  in  the  city  of  Fresno.  I  had  my 
wife  make  her  will  giving  to  each  member  of  the 
family,  fifteen  in  all,  each  share  and  share  alike 
in  the  property  she  received  from  me.  This  so 
fixed  things  that  when  I  pass  away  I  shall  have  no 
estate  to  settle.  I  will  have  my  wife  to  form  a 
syndicate,  because  she  won't  be  able  to  handle  the 
property.  My  oldest  son  will  be  president,  secre- 
tary and  manager  and  my  youngest  son  vice-presi- 


138  The  Life  of  a  New.  England  Boy 

dent  and  trustee  and  the  two  daughters  the  other 
trustees,  and  they  together  will  manage  the  busi- 
ness. 


The  Life  of  a  New  England  Boy  139 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

LOOKING  FORWARD. 

There  comes  a  time  in  the  life  of  every  man 
when  he  can  no  longer  work,  and  he  looks  forward 
in  anticipation  of  what  he  would  do.  Therefore, 
I  having  arrived  at  that  period,can  only  anticipate 
what  I  may  do  should  my  health  permit  and  life 
be  extended  to  do  it,  and  if  I  don't  do  this  myself 
I  shall  place  it  in  the  hands  of  my  syndicate  to 
do  it  for  me  when  I  shall  have  passed  away.  I 
purpose  to  build  an  apartment  house  at  833  O 
Street  of  thirty-four  rooms.  I  purpose  to  build 
an  apartment  house  at  2322  Kern  Street  of  thirty- 
four  rooms.  I  purpose  to  purchase  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  on  the  corner  of  0  and  Kern  streets 
on  which  I  will  build  a  threble  apartment  house 
of  one  hundred  rooms,  and  when  I  or  my  syndicate 
shall  have  accomplished  this,  if  I'm  living,  I  rest 
from  my  labors.  I  have  lived  until  I  did  it.  Did 
what?  Made  a  fortune. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


'      K.y^ 

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LD  21A-60m-3,'65 
(P2336slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

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YC   15448 


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